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TREES WORTH KNOWING 






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A BEND IN THE TRAIL 



Little Nature Library 

TREES 

WORTH KNOWING 

By JULIA ELLEN ROGERS 



(Author of The Tree Book, The Tree Guide, Trees 

Every Child Should Know, The Book of Useful 

Plants, The Shell Book, etc., etc.) 




With forty -eight illustrations, sixteen being in color 



Gahdbn City New York 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1917 



a^< 









Copyright, 1917 9 by 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

All rights reserved, including that of 

translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



4 

MAY -2 1917 

©GU462213 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Introduction . xi 

PARTI 

The Life of the Trees 3 

PART II 

The Nut Trees 28 

The Walnuts; The Hickories; The Beech; The 
Chestnuts; The Oaks; The Horse-chestnuts; The 
Lindens 

PART III 

Water-loving Trees 75 

The Poplars; The Willows; The Hornbeams; The 
Birches; The Alders; The Sycamores; The Gum 
Trees; The Osage Orange 

PART IV 

Trees With Showy Flowers and Fruits . . . 101 
The Magnolias; The Dogwoods; The Vibur- 
nums; The Mountain Ashes; The Rhododendron ; 
The Mountain Laurel; The Madrona; The Sorrel 
Tree; The Silver Bell Trees; The Sweet Leaf; The 
Fringe Tree; The Laurel Family; The Witch 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Hazel; The Burning Bush; The Sumachs; The 
Smoke Tree; The Hollies 

PART V 

Wild Relatives of Our Orchard Trees . . . 147 
The Apples; The Plums; The Cherries; The 
Hawthorns; The Service-berries; The Hackberries; 
The Mulberries; The Figs; The Papaws; The 
Pond Apples; The Persimmons 

PART VI 

The Pod-bearing Trees 176 

The Locusts; The Acacias; Miscellaneous Species 

PART VII 

Deciduous Trees with Winged Seeds .... 193 
The Maples; The Ashes; The Elms 

PART vni 

The Cone-bearing Evergreens 217 

The Pines; The Spruces; The Firs; The Douglas 
Spruce; The Hemlocks; The Sequoias; The Arbor- 
vitaes; The Incense Cedar; The Cypresses; The 
Junipers; The Larches 

PART IX 
The Palms 280 

General Index 283 



LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Canoe or Paper Birch On Cover 

A Bend in the Trail Frontispiece 

Shagbark Hickory 6 

Mockernut Fruit and Leaves 7 

A Grove of Beeches 22 

Chestnut Tree 23 

Weeping Beech 30 

Black Walnut 31 

White Oak 38 

Bur or Mossy-cup Oak Leaves and Fruit . . 39 

Horse-chestnut in Blossom 54 

Weeping Willow 55 

Tulip Tree, Flower and Leaves 103 

Flowering Dogwood 118 

American Elm 215 

Eastern Red Cedars and Hickory .... 230 



LIST OF OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Black Walnut Shoots . 70 

Shagbark Hickory 71 

American Linden Leaves and Fruit ... 86 

Trembling Aspen Catkins and Leaves . . 86-87 

Pussy Willow Flowers 86-87 

American Hornbeam — A Fruiting Branch . 87 

The Tattered, Silky Bark of the Birches 102 

Sycamore Bark and Seed-balls .... 102-103 
Bark, Seeds, and Seed-balls of the Sweet 

Gum 102-103 

Osage Orange Leaves, and Flowers ... 119 
Dogwood Bark, Blossom, Fruit, and Buds 134 
Mountain Ash Flowers and Leaves ... 135 
Sassafras Flowers, Fruit, and Leaves . . 150 
Foliage and Flowers of the Smooth Sumach 150-151 
Buds, Leaves, and Fruit of the Wild Crab- 
apple 150-151 

Canada Plum — Flowers and Trunk ... 151 

Wild Black Cherry — Flowers and Fruit 166 

Fruiting Branch of Cockspur Thorn . . 167 

Service-berry Tree in Blossom .... 1S\J 

Hackberry — Flowers, Fruit, and Leaves 183 

ix 



x LIST OF OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Honey Locust's Trunk, and Black Locust's 

Flowers and Leaves 198 

Sugar Maple 198-199 

Red Maple Flowers ....... 198-199 

Seed Keys and New Leaves of Soft or 

Silver Maple . 199 

White Ash Buds and Flowers .... 214 

A Group of White Pines 214-215 

Shortleaf Pine Cones and Needles . . . 214-215 

The Sugar Pine 231 

Leaves and Cones of Hemlock and of Nor- 
way Spruce 246 

Black Spruce Cones and Needles . . . 247 

Spray of Arbor- vetae 262 

American Larch Cones and Needles . . 263 



INTRODUCTION 



INTRODUCTION 

Occasionally I meet a person who says : "I know noth- 
ing at all about trees." This modest disclaimer is generally 
sincere, but it has always turned out to be untrue. "Oh, 
well, that old sugar maple, I've always known that tree. 
We used to tap all the sugar maples on the place every 
spring." Or again: "Everybody knows a white birch by 
its bark." "Of course, anybody who has ever been chest- 
nutting knows a chestnut tree." Most people know Lom- 
bardy poplars, those green exclamation points so com- 
monly planted in long soldierly rows on roadsides and 
boundary lines in many parts of the country. Willows, 
too, everybody knows are willows. The best nut trees, 
the shagbark, chestnut, and butternut, need no formal in- 
troduction. The honey locust has its striking three- 
pronged thorns, and its purple pods dangling in win- 
ter and skating off over the snow. The beech has its 
smooth, close bark of Quaker gray, and nobody needs 
to look for further evidence to determine this tree's 
name. 

So it is easily proved that each person has a good nucleus 
of tree knowledge around which to accumulate more. If 
people have the love of nature in their hearts — if things out 
of doors call irresistibly, at any season — it will not really 
matter if their lives are pinched and circumscribed. Ways 
and means of studying trees are easily found, even if the 
scant ends of busy days spent indoors are all the time at 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

command. If there is energy to begin the undertaking it will 
soon furnish its own motive power. Tree students, like 
bird students, become enthusiasts. To understand their 
enthusiasm one must follow their examples. 

The beginner doesn't know exactly how and where to 
begin. There are great collections of trees here and there. 
The Arnold Arboretum in Boston is the great dendrological 
Noah's Ark in this country. It contains almost all the 
trees, American and foreign, which will grow in that 
region. The Shaw Botanical Garden at St. Louis is the 
largest midland assemblage of trees. Parks in various 
cities bring together as large a variety of trees as possible, 
and these are often labelled with their English and botani- 
cal names for the benefit of the public. 

Yet the places for the beginner are his own dooryard, the 
streets he travels four times a day to his work, and woods 
for his holiday, though they need not be forests. Arboreta 
are for his delight when he has gained some acquaintance 
with the tree families. But not at first. The trees may 
all be set out in tribes and families and labelled with their 
scientific names. They will but confuse and discourage 
him. There is not time to make their acquaintance. 
They overwhelm with the mere number of kinds. Great 
arboreta and parks are very scarce. Trees are every- 
where. The acquaintance of trees is within the reach of 
all. 

First make a plan of the yard, locating and naming the 
trees you actually know. Extend it to include the street, 
and the neighbors' yards, as you get ready for them. Be 
very careful about giving names to trees. If you think 
you know a tree, ask yourself how you know it. Sift out all 
the guesses, and the hearsays, and begin on a solid f ounda- 



INTRODUCTION xv 

tion, even if you are sure about only the sugar maple and 
the white birch. 

The characters to note in studying trees are: leaves, 
flowers, fruits, bark, buds, bud arrangement, leaf scars, and 
tree form. The season of the year determines which 
features are most prominent. Buds and leaf scars are the 
most unvarying of tree characters. In winter these traits 
and the tree frame are most plainly revealed. Winter 
often exhibits tree fruits on or under the tree, and dead- 
leaf studies are very satisfactory. Leaf arrangement may 
be made out at any season, for leaf scars tell this story after 
the leaves fall. 

Only three families of our large trees have opposite 
leaves. This fact helps the beginner. Look first at the 
twigs. If the leaves, or (in winter) the buds and leaf 
scars, stand opposite, the tree (if it is of large size) belongs 
to the maple, ash, or horse-chestnut family. Our native 
horse-chestnuts are buckeyes. If the leaves are simple the 
tree is a maple; if pinnately compound, of several leaflets, 
it is an ash; if palmately compound, of five to seven leaflets, 
it is a horse-chestnut. In winter dead leaves under the 
trees furnish this evidence. The winter buds of the horse- 
chestnut are large and waxy, and the leaf scars look like 
prints of a horse's hoof. Maple buds are small, and the 
leaf scar is a small, narrow crescent. Ash buds are dull 
and blunt, with rough, leathery scales. Maple twigs are 
slender. Ash and buckeye twigs are stout and clumsy. 

Bark is a distinguishing character of many trees — of 
others it is confusing. The sycamore, shedding bark in 
sheets from its limbs, exposes pale, smooth under bark. 
The tree is recognizable by its mottled appearance winter 
or summer. The corky ridges on limbs of sweet gum and 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

bur oak are easily remembered traits. The peculiar hori- 
zontal peeling of bark on birches designates most of the 
genus. The prussic-acid taste of a twig sets the cherry- 
tribe apart. The familiar aromatic taste of the green 
twigs of sassafras is its best winter character; the mitten- 
shaped leaves distinguish it in summer. 

It is necessary to get some book on the subject to dis- 
cover the names of trees one studies, and to act as teacher 
at times. A book makes a good staff, but a poor crutch. 
The eyes and the judgment are the dependable things. 
In spring the way in which the leaves open is significant; 
so are the flowers. Every tree when it reaches proper age 
bears flowers. Not all bear fruit, but blossoms come on 
every tree. In summer the leaves and fruits are there to 
be examined. In autumn the ripening fruits are the 
special features. 

To know a tree's name is the beginning of acquaintance 
— not an end in itself. There is all the rest of one's life in 
which to follow it up. Tree friendships are very precious 
things. John Muir, writing among his beloved trees of the 
Yosemite Valley, adjures his world-weary fellow men to 
seek the companionship of trees. 

"To learn how they live and behave in pure wildness, to 
see them in their varying aspects through the seasons and 
weather, rejoicing in the great storms, putting forth their 
new leaves and flowers, when all the streams are in flood, 
and the birds singing, and sending away their seeds in the 
thoughtful Indian summer, when all the landscape is glow- 
ing in deep, calm enthusiasm — for this you must love them 
and live with them, as free from schemes and care and 
time as the trees themselves." 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

Tree Names 

Two Latin words, written in italics, with a cabalistic 
abbreviation set after them, are a stumbling block on the 
page to the reader unaccustomed to scientific lore. He re- 
sents botanical names, and demands to know the tree's 
name in "plain English." Trees have both common and 
scientific names, and each has its use. Common names 
were applied to important trees by people, the world over, 
before science was born. Many trees were never noticed 
by anybody until botanists discovered and named them. 
They may never get common names at all. 

A name is a description reduced to its lowest terms. It 
consists usually of a surname and a descriptive adjective: 
Mary Jones, white oak, Quercus alba. Take the oaks, for 
example, and let us consider how they got their names, 
common and scientific. All acorn-bearing trees are oaks. 
They are found in Europe, Asia, and America. Their use- 
fulness and beauty have impressed people The Britons 
called them by a word which in our modern speech is oak, 
and as they came to know the different kinds, they added a 
descriptive word to the name of each. But "plain 
English" is not useful to the Frenchman. Chene is his 
name for the acorn trees. The German has his Eichen- 
baum, the Roman had his Quercus, and who knows what 
the Chinaman and the H ndoo in far Cathay or the Ameri- 
can Indian called these trees? Common names made the 
trouble when the Tower of Babel was building. 

Latin has always been the universal language of scholars. 
It is dead, so that it can be depended upon to remain un- 
changed in its vocabulary and in its forms and usages. 
Scientific names are exact, and remain unchanged, though 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

an article or a book using them may be translated into all 
the modern languages. The word Quercus clears away 
difficulties. French, English, German hearers know what 
trees are meant — or they know just where in books of their 
own language to find them described. 

The abbreviation that follows a scientific name tells who 
first gave the name. "Linn." is frequently noticed, for 
Linnaeus is authority for thousands of plant names. 

Two sources of confusion make common names of trees 
unreliable: the application of one name to several species, 
and the application of several names to one species. To 
illustrate the first: There are a dozen iron woods in Ameri- 
can forests. They belong, with two exceptions, to differ- 
ent genera and to at least live different botanical families. 
To illustrate the second: The familiar American elm is 
known by at least seven local popular names. The bur 
oak has seven. Many of these are applied to other species. 
Three of the five native elms are called water elm; three 
are called red elm; three are called rock elm. There are 
seven scrub oaks. Only by mentioning the scientific 
name can a writer indicate with exactness which species he 
is talking about. The unscientific reader can go to the 
botanical manual or cyclopedia and under this name find 
the species described. 

In California grows a tree called by three popular 
names: leatherwood, slippery elm, and silver oak. Its 
name is Fremontia. It is as far removed from elms and 
oaks as sheep are from cattle and horses. But the names 
stick. It would be as easy to eradicate the trees, root and 
branch, from a region as to persuade people to abandon 
names they are accustomed to, though they may concede 
that you have proved these names incorrect, or meaning- 



INTRODUCTION xix 

less, or vulgar. Nicknames like nigger pine, he huckle- 
berry, she balsam, and bull bay ought to be dropped by all 
people who lay claim to intelligence and taste. 

With all their inaccuracies, common names have inter- 
esting histories, and the good ones are full of helpful sug- 
gestion to the learner. Many are literal translations of 
the Latin names. The first writers on botany wrote in 
Latin. Plants were described under the common name, 
if there was one; if not, the plant was named. The differ- 
ent species of each group were distinguished by the descrip- 
tions and the drawings that accompanied them. Linnaeus 
attempted to bring the work of botanical scholars to- 
gether, and to publish descriptions and names of all known 
plants in a single volume. This he did, crediting each 
botanist with his work. The "Species Plantarum," 
Linnaeus's monumental work, became the foundation of 
the modern science of botany, for it included all the plants 
known and named up to the time of its publication. This 
was about the middle of the eighteenth century. 

The vast body of information which the "Species 
Plantarum" contained was systematically arranged. All 
the different species in one genus were brought together. 
They were described, each under a number; and an 
adjective word, usually descriptive of some marked char- 
acteristic, was written in as a marginal index. 

After Linnaeus's time botanists found that the genus 
name in combination with this marginal word made a con- 
venient and exact means of designating the plant. Thus 
Linnaeus became the acknowledged originator of the 
binomial (two-name) system of nomenclature now in use 
in all sciences. It is a delightful coincidence that while 
Linnaeus was engaged on his great work, North America, 



xx INTRODUCTION 

that vast new field of botanical exploration, was being- 
traversed by another Swedish scientist. Peter Kalm sent 
his specimens and his descriptive notes to Linnaeus, who 
described and named the new plants in his book. The 
specimens swelled the great herbarium at the University 
of Upsala. 

Among trees unknown to science before are the Mag- 
nolia, named in honor of the great French botanist, Mag- 
nol. Robinia, the locust, honors another French botanist, 
Robin, and his son. Kalmia, the beautiful mountain 
laurel, immortalizes the name of the devoted explorer who 
discovered it. 

Inevitably, duplication of names attended the work 
of the early scientists, isolated from each other, and 
far from libraries and herbaria. Any one discovering a 
plant he believed to be unknown to science published a 
description of it in some scientific journal. If some one 
else had described it at an earlier date, the fact became 
known in the course of time. The name earliest published 
is retained, and the later one is dropped to the rank of a 
synonym. If the name has been used before to describe 
some other species in the same genus, a new name must be 
supplied. In the "Cyclopedia of Horticulture" the sugar 
maple is written : "Acer saccharum, Marsh. (Acer sacch- 
arinum, Wang. Acer barbatum, Michx.)" This means 
that the earliest name given this tree by a botanist was that 
of Marshall. Wangheimer and Michaux are therefore 
thrown out; the names given by them are among the 
synonyms. 

Our cork elm was until recently called " Ulmus racemosa, 
Thomas." The discovery that the name racemosa was 
given long ago to the cork elm of Europe discredited it for 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

the American tree. Mr. Sargent substituted the name of 
the author, and it now stands "Ulmus Thomasi, Sarg." 
Occasionally a generic name is changed. The old generic 
name becomes the specific name. Box elder was formerly 
known as "Negundo aceroides, Mcench." It is changed 
back to "Acer Negundo, Linn." On the other hand, the 
tan-bark oak, which is intermediate in character between 
oaks and chestnuts, has been taken by Professor Sargent 
in his Manual, 1905, out of the genus Quercus and set in a 
genus by itself. From "Quercus densiflora, Hook, and 
Arm," it is called "Pasania densiflora, Sarg.," the specific 
name being carried over to the new genus. 

About one hundred thousand species of plants have been 
named by botanists. They believe that one half of the 
world's flora is covered. Trees are better known than less 
conspicuous plants. Fungi and bacteria are just coming 
into notice. Yet even among trees new species are con- 
stantly being described. Professor Sargent described 567 
native species in his "Silva of North America," published 
1892-1900. His Manual, 1905, contains 630. Both books 
exclude Mexico. The silva of the tropics contains many 
unknown trees, for there are still impenetrable tracts of 
forest. 

The origin of local names of trees is interesting. History 
and romance, music and hard common sense are in these 
names — likewise much pure foolishness. The nearness to 
Mexico brought in the musical pi?io?i and madroha in the 
southwest. Pecanier and bois d'arc came with many other 
French names with the Acadians to Louisiana. The In- 
dians had many trees named, and we wisely kept hickory, 
wahoo, catalpa, persimmon, and a few others of them. 

Woodsmen have generally chosen descriptive names 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

which are based on fact and are helpful to learners. Bot- 
anists have done this, too. Bark gives the names to shag- 
bark hickory, striped maple, and naked wood. The color 
names white birch, black locust, blue beech. Wood names 
red oak, yellow-wood, and white-heart hickory. The tex- 
ture names rock elm, punk oak, and soft pine. The uses 
name post oak, canoe birch, and lodge-pole pine. 

The tree habit is described by dwarf juniper and weeping 
spruce. The habitat by swamp maple, desert willow, and 
seaside alder. The range by California white oak and 
Georgia pine. Sap is characterized in sugar maple, sweet 
gum, balsam fir, and sweet birch. Twigs are indicated in 
clammy locust, cotton gum, winged elm. Leaf linings are 
referred to in silver maple, white poplar, and white bass- 
wood. Color of foliage, in gray pine, blue oak, and golden 
fir. Shape of leaves, in heart-leaved cucumber tree and 
ear-leaved umbrella. Resemblance of leaves to other 
species, in willow oak and parsley haw. The flowers of 
trees give names to tulip tree, silver-bell tree, and fringe 
tree. The fruit is described in big-cone pine, butternut, 
mossy-cup oak, and mock orange. 

Many trees retain their classical names, which have be- 
come the generic botanical ones, as acacia, ailanthus, and 
viburnum. Others modify these slightly, as pine from 
Pinus, and poplar from Populus. The number of local 
names a species has depends upon the notice it attracts and 
the range it has. The loblolly pine, important as a lumber 
tree, extends along the coast from New Jersey to Texas. 
It has twenty-two nicknames. 

The scientific name is for use when accurate designation 
of a species is required; the common name for ordinary 
speech. "What a beautiful Quercus alba!' 9 sounds very 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

silly and pedantic, even if it falls on scientific ears. Only 
persons of very shallow scientific learning use it on such in- 
formal occasions. 

Let us keep the most beautiful and fitting among com- 
mon names, and work for their general adoption. There 
are no hard names once they become familiar ones. No- 
body hesitates or stumbles over chrysanthemum and 
rhododendron, though these sonorous Greek derivatives 
have four syllables. Nobody asks what these names are 
"in plain English/' 



TREES WORTH KNOWING 



TREES 

PART I 
THE LIFE OF THE TREES 

The swift unfolding of the leaves in spring is always a 
miracle. One day the budded twigs are still wrapped in 
the deep sleep of winter. A trace of green appears about 
the edges of the bud scales — they loosen and fall, and the 
tender green shoot looks timidly out and begins to unfold 
its crumpled leaves. Soon the delicate blade broadens and 
takes on the texture and familiar appearance of the grown- 
up leaf. Behold! while we watched the single shoot the 
bare tree has clothed itself in the green canopy of summer. 

How can this miracle take place? How does the tree 
come into full leaf, sometimes within a fraction of a week? 
It could never happen except for the store of concentrated 
food that the sap dissolves in spring and carries to the 
buds, and for the remarkable activity of the cambium cells 
within the buds. 

What is a bud? It is a shoot in miniature — its leaves or 
flowers, or both, formed with wondrous completeness in 
the previous summer. About its base are crowded leaves 
so hardened and overlapped as to cover and protect the 
tender shoot. All the tree can ever express of beauty or 
of energy comes out of these precious little "growing 
points," wrapped up all winter, but impatient, as spring 

s 



hse^b^ . _| v.umgs^sBKHBaBmmsm* 



4 TREES 

approaches, to accept the invitation of the south wind and 
sun. 

The protective scale leaves fall when they are no longer 
needed. This vernal leaf fall makes little show on the 
forest floor, but it greatly exceeds in number of leaves the 
autumnal defoliation. 

Sometimes these bud scales lengthen before the shoot 
spares them. The silky, brown scales of the beech buds 
sometimes add twice their length, thus protecting the 
lengthening shoot which seems more delicate than most 
kinds, less ready to encounter unguarded the wind and the 
sun. The hickories, shagbark, and mockernut, show scales 
more than three inches long. 

Many leaves are rosy, or lilac tinted, when they open — 
the waxy granules of their precious "leaf green "screened 
by these colored pigments from the full glare of the sun. 
Some leaves have wool or silk growing like the pile of velvet 
on their surfaces. These hairs are protective also. They 
shrivel or blow away when the leaf comes to its full de- 
velopment. Occasionally a species retains the down on 
the lower surface of its leaves, or, oftener, merely in the 
angles of its veins. 

The folding and plaiting of the leaves bring the ribs and 
veins into prominence. The delicate green web sinks 
into folds between and is therefore protected from the 
weather. Young leaves hang limp, never presenting their 
perpendicular surfaces to the sun. 

Another protection to the infant leaf is the pair of stipules 
at its base. Such stipules enclose the leaves of tulip and 
magnolia trees. The beech leaf has two long strap-like 
stipules. Linden stipules are green and red — two con- 
cave, oblong leaves, like the two valves of a pea pod. Elm 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 5 

stipules are conspicuous. The black willow has large, 
leaf -like, heart-shaped stipules, green as the leaf and saw- 
toothed. 

Most stipules shield the tender leaf during the hours of 
its helplessness, and fall away as the leaf matures. Others 
persist, as is often seen in the black willows. 

With this second vernal leaf fall (for stipules are leaves) 
the leaves assume independence, and take up their serious 
work. They are ready to make the living for the whole 
tree. Nothing contributed by soil or atmosphere — no 
matter how rich it is — can become available for the tree's 
use until the leaves receive and prepare it. 

Every leaf that spreads its green blade to the sun is a 
laboratory, devoted to the manufacture of starch. It is, 
in fact, an outward extension of the living cambium, 
thrust out beyond the thick, hampering bark, and special- 
ized to do its specific work rapidly and effectively. 

The structure of the leaves must be studied with a 
microscope. This laboratory has a delicate, transparent, 
enclosing wall, with doors, called stomates, scattered over 
the lower surface. The "leaf pulp" is inside, so is the 
framework of ribs and veins, that not only supports the 
soft tissues but furnishes the vascular system by which an 
incoming and outgoing current of sap is kept in constant 
circulation. In the upper half of the leaf, facing the sun, 
the pulp is in "palisade cells," regular, oblong, crowded 
together, and perpendicular to the flat surface. There are 
sometimes more than one layer of these cells. 

In the lower half of the leaf's thickness, between the pal- 
isade cells and the under surface, the tissue is spongy. 
There is no crowding of cells here. They are irregularly 
spherical, and cohere loosely, being separated by ample 



6 TREES 

air spaces, which communicate with the outside world by 
the doorways mentioned above. An ordinary apple leaf 
has about one hundred thousand of these stomates to each 
square inch of its under surface. So the ventilation of the 
leaf is provided for. 

The food of trees comes from two sources — the air and 
the soil. Dry a stick of wood, and the water leaves it. 
Burn it now, and ashes remain. The water and the ashes 
came from the soil. That which came from the air passed 
off in gaseous form with the burning. Some elements from 
the soil also were converted by the heat into gases, and 
escaped by the chimneys. 

Take that same stick of wood, and, instead of burning it 
in an open fireplace or stove, smother it in a pit and burn it 
slowly, and it comes out a stick of charcoal, having its 
shape and size and grain preserved. It is carbon, its only 
impurity being a trace of ashes. What would have es- 
caped up a chimney as carbonic-acid gas is confined here as 
a solid, and fire can yet liberate it. 

The vast amount of carbon which the body of a tree 
contains came into its leaves as a gas, carbon dioxide. 
The soil furnished various minerals, which were brought up 
b the "crude sap." Most of these remain as ashes when 
the wood is burned. Water comes from the soil. So the 
list of raw materials of tree food is complete, and the next 
question is: How are they prepared for the tree's use? 

The ascent of the sap from roots to leaves brings water 
with mineral salts dissolved in it. Thus potassium, 
calcium, magnesium, iron, sulphur, nitrogen, and phos- 
phorus are brought to the leaf laboratories — some are use- 
ful, some useless. The stream of water contributes of 
itself to the laboratory whatever the leaf cells demand to 




See page 57 



SHAGBARK HICKORY 




See page JfO 



MOCKERNUT FRUIT AND LEAVES 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 7 

keep their own substance sufficiently moist, and those 
molecules that are necessary to furnish hydrogen and 
oxygen for the making of starch. Water is needed also to 
keep full the channels of the returning streams, but the 
great bulk of water that the roots send up escapes by 
evaporation through the curtained doorways of the leaves. 

Starch contains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the last 
two in the exact proportion that they bear to each other in 
water, H 2 0. The carbon comes in as carbon dioxide, 
CO 2 . There is no lack of this familiar gas in the air. It 
is exhaled constantly from the lungs of every animal, from 
chimneys, and from all decaying substances. It is diffused 
through the air, and, entering the leaves by the stomates, 
comes in contact with other food elements in the palisade 
cells. 

The power that runs this starch factory is the sun. The 
chlorophyll, or leaf green, which colors the clear protoplasm 
of the cells, is able to absorb in daylight (and especially on 
warm, sunny days) some of the energy of sunlight, and to 
enable the protoplasm to use the energy thus captured to 
the chemical breaking down of water and carbon dioxide, 
and the reuniting of their free atoms into new and more 
complex molecules. These are molecules of starch, C 6 H 10 O 5 . 

The new product in soluble form makes its way into the 
current of nutritious sap that sets back into the tree. This 
is the one product of the factory — the source of all the 
tree's growth — for it is the elaborated sap, the food which 
nourishes every living cell from leaf to root tip. It builds 
new wood layers, extends both twigs and roots, and per- 
fects the buds for the coming year. 

Sunset puts a stop to starch making. The power is 
turned off till another day. The distribution of starch 



8 TREES 

goes on. The surplus is unloaded, and the way is cleared 
for work next day. On a sunless day less starch is made 
than on a bright one. 

Excess of water and of free oxygen is noticeable in this 
making of starch. Both escape in invisible gaseous form 
through the stomates. No carbon escapes, for it is all used 
up, and a continual supply of CO 2 sets in from outside. 
We find it at last in the form of solid wood fibres. So it is 
the leaf's high calling to take the crude elements brought 
to it, and convert them into food ready for assimilation. 

There are little elastic curtains on the doors of leaves, 
and in dry weather they are closely drawn. This is to 
prevent the free escape of water, which might debilitate 
the starch-making cells. In a moist atmosphere the doors 
stand wide open. Evaporation does not draw water so 
hard in such weather, and there is no danger of excessive 
loss. "The average oak tree in its ^ve active months 
evaporates about 28,000 gallons of water" — an average of 
about 187 gallons a day. 

In the making of starch there is oxygen left over — just 
the amount there is left of the carbon dioxide when the 
carbon is seized for starch making. This accumulating 
gas passes into the air as free oxygen, "purifying" it for 
the use of all animal life, even as the absorption of carbon 
dioxide does. 

When daylight is gone, the exchange of these two gases 
ceases. There is no excess of oxygen nor demand for 
carbon dioxide until business begins in the morning. But 
now a process is detected that the day's activities had 
obscured. 

The living tree breathes — inhales oxygen and exhales 
carbonic-acid gas. Because the leaves exercise the func- 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 9 

tion of respiration, they may properly be called the lungs 
of trees, for the respiration of animals differs in no es- 
sential from that of plants. 

The bulk of the work of the leaves is accomplished before 
midsummer. They are damaged by whipping in the 
wind, by the ravages of fungi and insects of many kinds. 
Soot and dust clog the stomates. Mineral deposits 
cumber the working cells. Finally they become sere and 
russet or "die like the dolphin/' passing in all the splendor 
of sunset skies to oblivion on the leaf mould under the 
trees. 

The Growth of a Tree 

The great chestnut tree on the hillside has cast its bur- 
den of ripe nuts, flung down the empty burs, and given its 
yellow leaves to the autumn winds. Now the owner has 
cut down its twin, which was too near a neighbor for the 
well-being of either, and is converting it into lumber. The 
lopped limbs have gone to the woodpile, and the boards 
will be dressed and polished and used for the woodwork of 
the new house. Here is our opportunity to see what the 
bark of the living tree conceals — to study the anatomy of 
the tree — to learn something of grain and wood rings and 
knots. 

The most amazing fact is that this "too, too solid flesh" 
of the tree body was all made of dirty water and carbonic- 
acid gas. Well may we feel a kind of awe and reverence 
for the leaves and the cambium — the builders of this 
wooden structure we call a tree. The bark, or outer gar- 
ment, covers the tree completely, from tip of farthest root 
to tip of highest twig. Under the bark is the slimy, 
colorless living layer, the cambium, which we may define as 



10 TREES 

the separation between wood and bark. It seems to have 
no perceptible diameter, though it impregnates with its 
substance the wood and bark next to it. This cambium is 
a continuous undergarment, lining the bark everywhere, 
covering the wood of every root and every twig as well as 
of the trunk and all its larger divisions. 

Under the cambium is the wood, which forms the real 
body of the tree. It is a hard and fibrous substance, which 
in cross section of root or trunk or limb or twig is seen to be 
in fine, but distinctly marked, concentric rings about a 
central pith. This pith is most conspicuous in the twigs. 

Now, what does the chestnut tree accomplish in a single 
growing season? We have seen its buds open in early 
spring and watched the leafy shoots unfold Many of 
these bore clusters of blossoms in midsummer, long yellow 
spikes, shaking out a mist of pollen, and falling away at 
length, while the inconspicuous green flowers developed 
into spiny, velvet-lined burs that gave up in their own 
good time the nuts which are the seeds of the tree. 

The new shoots, having formed buds in the angles of 
their leaves, rest from their labors. The tree had added to 
the height and breadth of its crown the exact measure of 
its new shoots. There has been no lengthening of limb or 
trunk. But underground the roots have made a season's 
growth by extending their tips. These fresh rootlets 
clothed with the velvety root hairs are new, just as the 
shoots are new that bear the leaves on the ends of the 
branches. 

There is a general popular impression that trees grow in 
height by the gradual lengthening of trunk and limbs. If 
this were true, nails driven into the trunk in a vertical line 
would gradually become farther apart. They do not, as 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 11 

observation proves. Fence wires stapled to growing trees 
are not spread apart nor carried upward, though the trees 
may serve as posts for years, and the growth in diameter 
may swallow up staple and wire in a short time. Normal 
wood fibres are inert and do not lengthen. Only the 
season's rootlets and leafy shoots are soft and alive and 
capable of lengthening by cell division. 

The work of the leaves has already been described. The 
return current, bearing starch in soluble form, flows freely 
among the cells of the cambium. Oxygen is there also. 
The cambium cell in the growing season fulfils its life mis- 
sion by absorbing food and dividing. This is growth — 
and the power to grow comes only to the cell attacked by 
oxygen. The rebuilding of its tissues multiplies the sub- 
stance of the qambium at a rapid rate. A cell divides, 
producing two "daughter cells." Each is soon as large as 
its parent, and ready to divide in the same way. A cam- 
bium cell is a microscopic object, but in a tree there are 
millions upon millions of them. Consider how large an 
area of cambium a large tree has. It is exactly equivalent 
to the total area of its bark. Two cells by dividing make 
four. The next division produces eight, then sixteen, 
thirty -two, sixty -four, in geometric proportion. The 
cell's power and disposition to divide seems limited only by 
the food and oxygen supply. The cambium layer itself 
remains a very narrow zone of the newest, most active 
cells. The margins of the cambium are crowded with cells 
whose walls are thickened and whose protoplasm is no 
longer active. The accumulation of these worn-out colls 
forms the total of the season's growth, the annual ring of 
wood on one side of the cambium and the annual layer of 
bark on the other. 



12 TREES 

What was once a delicate cell now becomes a hollow 
wood fibre, thin walled, but becoming thickened as it gets 
older. For a few years the superannuated cell is a part of 
the sap wood and is used as a tube in the system through 
which the crude sap mounts to the leaves. Later it may 
be stored full of starch, and the sap will flow up through 
newer tubes. At last the walls of the old cell harden and 
darken with mineral deposits. Many annual rings lie be- 
tween it and the cambium. It has become a part of the 
heart wood of the tree. 

The cells of its own generation that were crowded in the 
other direction made part of an annual layer of bark. As 
new layers formed beneath them, and the bark stretched 
and cracked, they lost their moisture by contact with the 
outer air. Finally they became thin, loose fibres, and 
scaled off. 

The years of a tree's life are recorded with fair accuracy 
in the rings of its wood. The bark tells the same story, 
but the record is lost by its habit of sloughing off the outer 
layers. Occasionally a tree makes two layers of wood in a 
single season, but this is exceptional. Sometimes, as in a 
year of drought, the wood ring is so small as to be hardly 
distinguishable. 

Each annual ring in the chestnut stump is distinct from 
its neighboring ring. The wood gradually merges from a 
dark band full of large pores to one paler in color and of 
denser texture. It is very distinct in oak and ash. The 
coarser belt was formed first. The spring wood, being so 
open, discolors by the accumulation of dust when exposed 
to the air. The closer summer wood is paler in color and 
harder, the pores almost invisible to the unaided eye. The 
best timber has the highest percentage of summer wood. 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 13 

If a tree had no limbs, and merely laid on each year a 
layer of wood made of parallel fibres fitted on each other 
like pencils in a box, wood splitting would be child's play 
and carpenters would have less care to look after their 
tools. But woods differ in structure, and all fall short of 
the woodworker's ideal. The fibres of oak vary in shape 
and size. They taper and overlap their ends, making the 
wood less easily split than soft pine, for instance, whose 
fibres are regular cylinders, which lie parallel, and meet end 
to end without "breaking joints." 

Fibres of oak are also bound together by flattened 
bundles of horizontal fibres that extend from pith to cam- 
bium, insinuated between the vertical fibres. These are 
seen on a cross-section of a log as narrow, radiating lines 
starting from the pith and cutting straight through heart 
wood and sap wood to the bark. A tangential section of a 
log (the surface exposed by the removal of a slab on any 
side) shows these "pith rays," or "medullary rays" as 
long, tapering streaks. A longitudinal section made from 
bark to centre, as when a log is "quarter-sawed," shows 
a full side view of the "medullary rays." They are often 
an inch wide or more in oak; these wavy, irregular, gleam- 
ing fibre bands are known in the furniture trade as the 
"mirrors" of oak. They take a beautiful polish, and are 
highly esteemed in cabinet work. The best white oak has 
20 per cent, to 25 per cent, of its substance made up of these 
pith rays. The horny texture of its wood, together with 
its strength and durability, give white oak an enviable 
place among timber trees, while the beauty of its pith rays 
ranks it high among ornamental woods. 

The grain of wood is its texture. Wide annual rings 
with large pores mark coarse-grained woods. They need 



14 TREES 

"filling" with varnish or other substance before they can 
be satisfactorily polished. Fine-grained woods, if hard, 
polish best. Trees of slow growth usually have fine- 
grained wood, though the rule is not universal. 

Ordinarily wood fibres are parallel with their pith. They 
are straight grained. Exceptions to this rule are con- 
stantly encountered. The chief cause of variation is the 
fact that tree trunks branch. Limbs have their origin in 
the pith of the stems that bear them. Any stem is nor- 
mally one year older than the branch it bears. So the 
base of any branch is a cone quite buried in the parent 
stem. A cross-section of this cone in a board sawed from 
the trunk is a knot. Its size and number of rings indicate 
its age. If the knot is diseased and loose, it will fall out, 
leaving a knot hole. The fibres of the wood of a branch are 
extensions of those just below it on the main stem. They 
spread out so as to meet around the twig and continue in 
parallel lines to its extremity. The fibres contiguous to 
those which were diverted from the main stem to clothe 
the branch must spread so as to meet above the branch, else 
the parent stem would be bare in this quarter. The union 
of stem and branch is weak above, as is shown by the clean 
break made above a twig when it is torn off, and the stub- 
born tearing of the fibres below down into the older stem. 
A half hour spent at the woodpile or among the trees with a 
jack-knife will demonstrate the laws by which the straight 
grain of wood is diverted by the insertion of limbs. The 
careful picking up and tearing back of the fibres of bark 
and wood will answer all our questions. Bass wood whose 
fibres are tough is excellent for illustration. 

When a twig breaks off, the bark heals the wound and 
the grain becomes straight over the place. Trees crowded 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 15 

in a forest early divest themselves of their lower branches. 
These die for lack of sun and air, and the trunk covers 
their stubs with layers of straight-grained wood. Such 
timbers are the masts of ships, telegraph poles, and the best 
bridge timbers. Yet buried in their heart wood are the 
roots of every twig, great or small, that started out to 
grow when the tree was young. These knots are mostly 
small and sound, so they do not detract from the value of 
the lumber. It is a pleasure to work upon such a "stick 
of timber." 

A tree that grows in the open is clothed to the ground 
with branches, and its grain is found to be warped by 
hundreds of knots when it reaches the sawmill. Such a 
tree is an ornament to the landscape, but it makes inferior, 
unreliable lumber. The carpenter and the wood chopper 
despise it, for it ruins tools and tempers. 

Besides the natural diversion of straight grain by knots, 
there are some abnormal forms to notice. Wood some- 
times shows wavy grain under its bark. Certain trees 
twist in growing, so as to throw the grain into spiral lines. 
Cypresses and gum trees often exhibit in old stumps a 
veering of the grain to the left for a few years, then sud- 
denly to the right, producing a "cross grain" that defies 
attempts to split it. 

"Bird's-eye" and "curly maple" are prizes for the 
furniture maker. Occasionally a tree of swamp or sugar 
maple keeps alive the crowded twigs of its sapling for 
years, and forms adventitious buds as well. These 
dwarfed shoots persist, never getting ahead further than a 
few inches outside the bark. Each is the centre of a wood 
swelling on the tree body. The annual layers preserve all 
the inequalities. Dots surrounded by wavy rings are 



16 TREES 

scattered over the boards when the tree is sawed. This is 
bird's-eye grain, beautiful in pattern and in sheen and 
coloring when polished. It is cut thin for veneer work. 
Extreme irregularity of grain adds to the value of woods, if 
they are capable of a high polish. The fine texture and 
coloring, combined with the beautiful patterns they dis- 
play, give woods a place in the decorative arts that can be 
taken by no other material. 

The Fall of the Leaves 

It is November, and the glory of the woods is departed. 
Dull browns and purples show where oaks still hold their 
leaves. Beech trees in sheltered places are still dressed in 
pale yellow. The elfin flowers of the witch hazel shine like 
threads of gold against the dull leaves that still cling. The 
trees lapse into their winter sleep. 

Last week a strange thing happened. The wind tore 
the red robes from our swamp maples and sassafras and 
scattered them in tatters over the lawn. But the horse- 
chestnut, decked out in yellow and green, lost scarcely a 
leaf. Three days later, in the hush of early morning, when 
there was not a whiff of a breeze perceptible, the signal, 
"Let go!" came, and with one accord the leaves of the 
horse-chestnut fell. In an hour the tree stood knee deep in 
a stack of yellow leaves; the few that still clung had con- 
siderable traces of green in them. Gradually these are 
dropping, and the shining buds remain as a pledge that the 
summer story just ended will be told again next year. 

Perhaps such a sight is more impressive if one realizes the 
vast importance of the work the leaves of a summer ac- 
complish for the tree before their surrender. 

The shedding of leaves is a habit broad-leaved trees have 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 17 

learned by experience in contact with cold winters. The 
swamp magnolia is a beautiful evergreen tree in Florida. 
In Virginia the leaves shrivel, but they cling throughout 
the season. In New Jersey and north as far as Glouces- 
ter, where the tree occurs sparingly, it is frankly deciduous. 
Certain oaks in the Northern states have a stubborn way of 
clinging to their dead leaves all winter. Farther south 
some of these species grow and their leaves do not die in 
fall, but are practically evergreen, lasting till next year's 
shoots push them off. The same gradual change in habit 
is seen as a species is followed up a mountain side. 

The horse-chestnut will serve as a type of deciduous 
trees. Its leaves are large, and they write out, as if in 
capital letters, the story of the fall of the leaf. It is a 
serial, whose chapters run from July until November. The 
tree anticipates the coming of winter. Its buds are well 
formed by midsummer. Even then signs of preparation 
for the leaf fall appear. A line around the base of the leaf 
stem indicates where the break will be. Corky cells form 
on each side of this joint, replacing tissues which in the 
growing season can be parted only by breaking or tearing 
them forcibly. A clean-cut zone of separation weakens the 
hold of the leaf upon its twig, and when the moment arrives 
the lightest breath of wind — even the weight of the with- 
ered leaf itself — causes the natural separation. And the 
leaflets simultaneously fall away from their common pet- 
iole. 

There rre more important things happening in leaves in 
late summer than the formation of corky cells. The plump 
green blades are full of valuable substance that the tree can 
ill afford to spare. In fact, a leaf is a layer of the precious 
cambium spread out on a framework of veins and covered 



18 TREES 

with a delicate, transparent skin — a sort of etherealized 
bark. What a vast quantity of leaf pulp is in the foliage 
of a large tree ! 

As summer wanes, and the upward tide of sap begins to 
fail, starch making in the leaf laboratories declines pro- 
portionately. Usually before midsummer the fresh green 
is dimmed. Dust and heat and insect injuries impair the 
leaf's capacity for work. The thrifty tree undertakes to 
withdraw the leaf pulp before winter comes. 

But how? 

It is not a simple process nor is it fully understood. The 
tubes that carried the products of the laboratory away are 
bound up with the fibres of the leaf's skeleton. Through 
the transparent leaf wall the migration of the pulp may be 
watched. It leaves the margins and the net veins, and 
settles around the ribs and mid vein, exactly as we should 
expect. Dried and shrivelled horse-chestnut leaves are 
still able to show various stages in this marvellous retreat 
of the cambium. If moisture fails, the leaf bears some of 
its green substance with it to the earth. The "breaking 
down of the chlorophyll" is a chemical change that at- 
tends the ripening of a leaf. (Leaf ripening is as natural as 
the ripening of fruit.) The waxy granules disintegrate, 
and a yellow liquid shows its colors through the delicate 
leaf walls. Now other pigments, some curtained from 
view by the chlorophyll, others the products of decom- 
position, show themselves. Iron and other minerals the 
sap brought from the soil contribute reds and yellows and 
purples to the color scheme. As drainage proceeds, with 
the chemical changes that accompany it, the pageant of 
autumn colors passes over the woodlands. No weed or 
grass stem but joins in the carnival of the year. 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 19 

Crisp and dry the leaves fall. Among the crystals and 
granules that remain in their empty chambers there is little 
but waste that the tree can well afford to be rid of — sub- 
stances that have clogged the leaf and impeded its work. 

We have been mistaken in attributing the gay colors of 
autumnal foliage to the action of frost. The ripening of 
the leaves occurs in the season of warm days and frosty 
nights, but it does not follow that the two phenomena be- 
long together as cause and effect. Frost no doubt hastens 
the process. But the chemical changes that attend the 
migration of the carbohydrates and albuminous materials 
from the leaf back into twig and trunk and root for safe 
keeping go on no matter what the weather. 

In countries having a moist atmosphere autumn 
colors are less vivid. England and our own Pacific Coast 
have nothing to compare with the glory of the foliage in the 
forests of Canada and the Northeastern states, and with 
those on the wooded slopes of the Swiss Alps, and along the 
Rhine and the Danube. Long, dry autumns produce the 
finest succession of colors. The most brilliant reds and 
yellows often appear long before the first frost. Cold rains 
of long duration wash the colors out of the landscape, 
sometimes spoiling everything before October. A sharp 
freeze before the leaves expect it often cuts them off before 
they are ripe. They stiffen and fall, and are wet and limp 
next day, as if they had been scalded ; all their rich cell sub- 
stance lost to the tree, except as they form a mulch about 
its roots. But no tree can afford so expensive a fertilizer, 
and happily they are not often caught unawares. 

Under the trees the dead leaves He, forming with the 
snow a protective blanket for the roots. In spring the 
rains will leach out their mineral substance and add it to 



20 TREES 

the soil. The abundant lime in dead leaves is active in the 
formation of humus, which is decayed vegetable matter. 
We call it "leaf mould." So even the waste portions have 
their effectual work to do for the tree's good. 

The leaves of certain trees in regions of mild winters per- 
sist until they are pushed off by the swelling buds in spring. 
Others cling a year longer, in sorry contrast with the new 
foliage. We may believe that this is an indolent habit in- 
duced by climatic conditions. 

Leaves of evergreens cling from three to five years. 
Families and individuals differ; altitude and latitude pro- 
duce variations. An evergreen in winter is a dull-looking 
object, if we could compare it with its summer foliage. Its 
chlorophyll granules withdraw from the surface of the leaf. 

They seek the lower ends of the palisade cells, as far as 
they can get from the leaf surface, assume a dull reddish 
brown or brownish yellow color, huddle in clumps, their 
water content greatly reduced, and thus hibernate, much as 
the cells of the cambium are doing under the bark. In 
this condition, alternate freezing and thawing seem to do 
no harm, and the leaves are ready in spring to resume the 
starch-making function if they are still young. Naturally, 
the oldest leaves are least capable of this work, and least is 
expected of them. Gradually they die and drop as new 
ones come on. As among broad-leaved trees, the zone of 
foliage in evergreens is an outer dome of newest shoots; the 
framework of large limbs is practically destitute of leaves. 

How Trees Spend the Winter 

Nine out of every ten intelligent people will see nothing 
of interest in a row of bare trees. They casually state that 
buds are made in the early spring. They miss seeing the 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 21 

strength and beauty of tree architecture which the foliage 
conceals in summertime. The close-knit, alive-looking 
bark of a living tree they do not distinguish from the dull, 
loose-hung garment worn by the dead tree in the row. All 
trees look alike to them in winter. 

Yet there is so much to see if only one will take time to 
look. Even the most heedless are struck at times with the 
mystery of the winter trance of the trees. They know that 
each spring reenacts the vernal miracle. Thoughtful 
people have put questions to these sphinx-like trees. 
Secrets the bark and bud scales hide have been revealed to 
those who have patiently and importunately inquired. A 
keen pair of eyes used upon a single elm in the dooryard for 
a whole year will surprise and inform the observer. It will 
be indeed the year of miracle. 

A tree has no centre of life, no vital organs correspond- 
ing to those of animals. It is made up, from twig to root, 
of annual, concentric layers of wood around a central pith. 

It is completely covered with a close garment of bark, 
also made of annual layers. Between bark and wood is the 
delicate undergarment of living tissue called cambium. 
This is disappointing when one comes to look for it, for all 
there is of it is a colorless, slimy substance that moistens 
the youngest layers of wood and bark, and forms the layer 
of separation between them. This cambium is the life of 
the tree. A hollow trunk seems scarcely a disability. 
The loss of limbs a tree can survive and start afresh. But 
girdle its trunk, exposing a ring of the cambium to the air, 
and the tree dies. The vital connection of leaves and 
roots is destroyed by the girdling; nothing can save the 
tree's life. Girdle a limb or a twig and all above the in- 
jury suffers practical amputation. 






22 TREES 

The bark protects the cambium, and the cambium is the 
tissue which by cell multiplication in the growing season 
produces the yearly additions of wood and bark. Buds 
are growing points set along the twigs. They produce 
leafy shoots, as a rule. Some are specialized to produce 
flowers and subsequently fruits. Leaves are extensions 
of cambium spread in the sun and air in the season when 
there is no danger from frosts. The leaves have been 
called the stomachs of a tree. They receive crude ma- 
terials from the soil and the air and transmute them into 
starch under the action of sunlight. This elaborated sap 
supplies the hungry cambium cells during the growing 
season, and the excess of starch made in the leaf labora- 
tories is stored away in empty wood cells and in every 
available space from bud to root tip, from bark to pith. 

The tree's period of greatest activity is the early sum- 
mer. It is the time of growth and of preparation for the 
coming winter and for the spring that follows it. Winter 
is the time of rest — of sleep, or hibernation. A bear digs 
a hollow under the tree's roots and sleeps in it all winter, 
waking in the spring. In many ways the tree imitates the 
bear. Dangerous as are analogies between plants and 
animals, it is literally true that the sleeping bear and the 
dormant tree have each ceased to feed. The sole activity 
of each seems to be the quiet breathing. 

Do trees really breathe? As truly and as incessantly as 
you do, but not as actively. Other processes are inter- 
mittent, but breathing must go on, day and night, winter 
and summer, as long as life lasts. Breathing is low in 
winter. The tree is not growing. There is only the 
necessity of keeping it alive. 

Leaves are the lungs of plants. In the growing season 



i 




bee page ', I 



A GROVE OF BEECHE 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 23 

respiration goes on at a vigorous rate. The leaves also 
throw off in insensible vapor a vast quantity of water. 
This is called transpiration in plants; in animals the term 
used is perspiration. They are one and the same proc- 
ess. An average white oak tree throws off 150 gallons of 
water in a single summer day. With the cutting off of the 
water supply at the roots in late fall, transpiration is also 
cut off. 

The skin is the efficient "third lung" of animals. The 
closing of its pores causes immediate suffocation. The 
bark of trees carries on the work of respiration in the 
absence of the leaves. Bark is porous, even where it is 
thickest. 

Look at the twigs of half a dozen kinds of trees, and find 
the little raised dots on the smooth surface. They usually 
vary in color from the bark. These are lenticels, or breath- 
ing pores — not holes, likely to become clogged with dust, 
but porous, corky tissue that filters the air as it comes in. 
In most trees the smooth epidermis of twigs is shed as the 
bark thickens and breaks into furrows. This obscures, 
though it does not obliterate, the air passages. Cherry 
and birch trees retain the silky epidermal bark on limbs, 
and in patches, at least, on the trunks of old trees. Here 
the lenticels are seen as parallel, horizontal slits, open some- 
times, but usually filled with the characteristic corky sub- 
stance. They admit air to the cambium. 

There is a popular fallacy that trees have no buds until 
spring. Some trees have very small buds. But there is no 
tree in our winter woods that will not freely show its buds 
to any one who wishes to see them. A very important 
part of the summer work of a tree is the forming of biuls 
for next spring. Even when the leaves are just unfolding 



U TREES 

on the tender shoots a bud will be found in each angle be- 
tween leaf and stem. All summer long its bud is the 
especial charge of each particular leaf. If accident destroy 
the leaf, the bud dies of neglect. When midsummer comes 
the bud is full grown, or nearly so, and the fall of the leaf 
is anticipated. The thrifty tree withdraws as much as 
possible of the rich green leaf pulp, and stores it in the twig 
to feed the opening buds in spring. 

What is there inside the wrappings of a winter bud? 
"A leaf," is the usual reply — and it is not a true one. A 
bud is an embryo shoot — one would better say, a shoot in 
miniature. It has very little length or diameter when the 
scales are stripped off. But with care the leaves can be 
spread open, and their shape and venation seen. The 
exact number the shoot was to bear are there to be counted. 
Take a horse-chestnut bud — one of the biggest ones — and 
you will unpack a cluster of flowers distinct in number and 
in parts. The bud of the tulip tree is smaller, but it holds 
a single blossom, and petals, stamens, and pistil are easily 
recognizable. Some buds contain flowers and no leaves. 
Some have shoots with both upon them. If we know the 
tree, we may guess accurately about its buds. 

There is another popular notion, very pretty and senti- 
mental, but untrue, that study of buds is bound to over- 
throw. It is the belief that the woolly and silky linings of 
bud scales, and the scales themselves, and the wax that 
seals up many buds are all for the purpose of keeping the 
bud warm through the cold winter. The bark, according 
to the same notion, is to keep the tree warm. This idea 
is equally untenable. There is but feeble analogy be- 
tween a warm-blooded animal wrapped in fur, its bodily 
heat kept up by fires within (the rapid oxidation of fats 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 25 

and carbohydrates in the tissues), and the winter condition 
of a tree. Hardy plants are of all things the most cold 
blooded. They are defended against injuries from cold in 
an effective but entirely different way. 

Exposure to the air and consequent loss of its moisture 
by evaporation is the death of the cambium — that which 
lies under the thick bark and in the tender tissues of the 
bud, sealed up in its layers of protecting scales. 

The cells of the cambium are plump little masses of pro- 
toplasm, semi-fluid in consistency in the growing season. 
They have plenty of room for expansion and division. 
Freezing would rupture their walls, and this would mean 
disintegration and death. Nature prepares the cells to be 
frozen without any harm. The water of the protoplasm 
is withdrawn by osmosis into the spaces between the cells. 
The mucilaginous substance left behind is loosely enclosed 
by the crumpled cell wall. Thus we see that a tree has 
about as much water in it in winter as in summer. Green 
wood cut in winter burns slowly and oozes water at the 
ends in the same discouraging way as it does in summer- 
time. 

A tree takes on in winter the temperature of the sur- 
rounding air. In cold weather the water in buds and 
trunk and cambium freezes solid. Ice crystals form in the 
intercellular spaces where they have ample room, and so they 
do no damage in their alternate freezing and thawing. 
The protoplasm stiffens in excessive cold, but when the 
thermometer rises, life stirs again. Motion, breathing, and 
feeding are essential to cell life. 

It is hard to believe that buds freeze solid. But cut one 
open in a freezing cold room, and before you breathe upon 
it take a good look with a magnifier, and you should make 



26 TREES 

out the ice crystals. The bark is actually frozen upon a 
stick of green stove wood. The sap that oozes out of the pith 
and heart wood was frozen, and dripped not at all until it 
was brought indoors. 

What is meant by the freezing of fruit buds in winter, by 
which the peach crop is so often lost in Northern states? 
When spring opens, the warmth of the air wakes the sleep- 
ing buds. It thaws the ice in the intercellular spaces, and 
the cells are quick to absorb the water they gave up when 
winter approached. The thawing of the ground surrounds 
the roots with moisture. Sap rises and flows into the ut- 
most twig. Warm days in January or February are able 
to deceive the tree to this extent. The sudden change 
back to winter again catches them. The plump cells are 
ruptured and killed by the "frost bite." 

It is a bad plan to plant a tender kind of tree on the south 
side of a house or a wall. The direct and the reflected 
warmth of the sun forces its buds out too soon, and the late 
frosts cut them off. There is rarely a good yield on a tree 
so situated. 

There is no miracle like " the burst of spring." Who has 
watched a tree by the window as its twigs began to shine in 
early March, and the buds to swell and show edges of 
green as their scales lengthened? Then the little shoot 
struggled out, casting off the hindering scales with the 
scandalous ingratitude characteristic of infancy. Feeble 
and very appealing are the limp baby leaves on the shoot, 
as tender and pale green as asparagus tips. But all that 
store of rich nutritive material is backing the enterprise. 
The palms are lifted into the air; they broaden and take on 
the texture of the perfect, mature leaf. Scarcely a day is 
required to outgrow the hesitation and inexperience of 



THE LIFE OF THE TREES 



27 



youth. The tree stands decked in its canopy of leaves, 
every one of which is ready and eager to assume the re- 
sponsibilities it faces. The season of starch making has 
opened. 

Cut some twigs of convenient trees in winter. Let them 
be good ones, with vigorous buds, and have them at least 
two feet long. You may test this statement I have made 
about the storing of food in the twigs, and the one about 
the unfolding of the leafy shoots. Get a number of them 
from the orchard — samples from cherry, plum, and apple 
trees; from maple and elm and any other familiar tree. 
Put them in jars of water and set them where they get the 
sun on a convenient window shelf. Give them plenty of 
water, and do not crowd them. It is not necessary to 
change the water, but cutting the ends slanting and under 
water every few days insures the unimpeded flow of the 
water up the stems and the more rapid development of the 
buds you are watching. When spring comes there are too 
many things that demand attention. The forcing of 
winter buds while yet it is winter is the ideal way to dis- 
cover the trees' most precious secrets. 



PART II 

THE NUT TREES 

The Walnuts — The Hickories — The Beech — The 
Chestnuts — The Oaks — The White Oak Group 
— The Black Oak Group — The Horse-chestnuts, 
or Buckeyes — The Lindens, or Basswoods 

THE WALNUTS 

Hickories are included with their near relatives, the 
walnuts, in one of the most important of all our native tree 
groups. They are distinct, yet they have many traits in 
common — the flowers and the nut fruits, the hard resinous 
wood, with aromatic sap and leaves of many leaflets, in- 
stead of a single blade. 

The walnuts are decidedly "worthkno wing." All produce 
valuable timber and edible nuts, and all are good shade 
trees. Four native walnuts are well known in this country, 
for in October, every tree in every bit of woods is likely to 
be visited by school boys with bags, eager to gather the nuts 
before some other boy finds the tree, and thus establishes a 
prior claim upon it. The curiously gnawed shells outside 
the winter storehouse of some furry woods-dweller reveal 
the most successful competitor boys have, the constant 
watcher of the nut trees, a harvester who works at nothing 
else while the season is on. 

28 



THE WALNUTS 29 

The Southwestern Walnut 

Juglans rupestris, Engelm. 

The walnut of the Southwest grows into a spreading, lux- 
uriant tree, where its roots find water. But on the canyon 
sides, and higher on mountain slopes, it becomes a stunted 
shrub, because of lack of moisture. 

The nut is smaller than that of the eastern walnuts and 
has a thick shell, but the kernel is sweet and keeps its rich 
flavor for a long time. The Mexicans and Indians are glad 
to have this nut added to the stores they gather for their 
winter food. 

One striking feature of this tree is the pale, cottony down 
on its twigs, which sometimes persists three or four 
years. The long limbs droop at the extremities, almost 
deserving to be called "weeping." But nothing could 
be more cheerful in color than the yellow-green foliage, 
shining in the sun, against the white bark of the tree. 
In autumn the foliage turns bright yellow. A speci- 
men, much admired, grows in the Arnold Arboretum in 
Boston. 

- The California Walnut 

J. calif ornica, Wats. 

The California walnut is a stocky, round-headed tree, 
with heavy, drooping branches, and bark that is white and 
smooth on limbs and on trunks of young trees. Ultimately 
the trunk turns nearly black, and i^ checked into broad, 
irregular ridges. In bottom lands, along the courses of 
rivers, back thirty miles from the coast, these trees are 






30 TREES 

found, from the Sacramento Valley to the southern slopes 
of the San Bernardino Mountains. 

The foliage is bright pale green, feathery, the leaflets 
often curved to sickle form, showing paler silky linings. 
Calif ornians admire and plant this tree for shade and orna- 
ment. Its greatest value is as a hardy stock upon which 
the "English" walnut is grafted by nurserymen, for plant- 
ing orchards of this commercial nut. The fruit of the 
native nut is excellent, but it cannot compete with the 
thin-shelled nut that came from Persia, via England. 

The Butternut, White Walnut, or Oilnut 

J. drier ea, Linn. 

In eastern woods the butternut is known by its long, 
pointed nuts, with deeply and raggedly sculptured shells, in 
fuzzy, clammy, sticky husks that stain the hands of him who 
attempts to get at the oily meat before the husks are dry. 
This dark stain was an important dye in the time when 
homespun cotton cloth was worn by men and boys. The 
modern khaki resembles in color the "butternut jeans," in 
which backwoods regiments of the Civil War were clad. 
Butternut husks and bark yield also a drug of cathartic 
properties. 

Pickling green oilnuts in their husks is a housewifely 
industry, on the summer programme of many housewives 
still, if the woods near by furnish the raw material for em- 
ploying her great-grandmother's recipe, brought from Eng- 
land, or perhaps from France. The green nuts are tested 
with a knitting needle. If it goes through them with no 
difficulty, and yet the nuts are of good size, they are ready. 
Vigorous rubbing removes the fuzz after the nuts are 




BLACK WALNUT 



page 31 



THE WALNUTS 31 

scalded. Then they are pickled whole, in spiced vinegar, and 
are a rare, delectable relish with meats for the winter table. 

A butternut tree, beside the road, or elsewhere, with 
room to grow, has a short trunk, and a low, broad head, 
with a downward droop to the horizontal limbs. The bark 
is light brown, the limbs grayish green, the twigs and leaves 
all ooze a clammy, waxy, aromatic sap, and are covered 
with fine hairs of velvety abundance. 

Because it is low and rather wayward in growth, late to 
leaf out in spring, and early to shed its leaves in summer, 
the butternut is not a good street tree. It breaks easily 
in the wind, and crippled trees are more common than 
well-grown specimens. Insect and fungous enemies beset 
the species, and take advantage of breaks to invade the 
twigs through the chambered pith. Short-lived trees 
they are, whose brown, satiny wood is used in cabinet 
work, but is not plentiful. 

The Black Walnut 

J. nigra, Linn. 

The black walnut {see illustrations, pages 31, 70) is the 
second species east of the Rocky Mountains, and the tree 
chiefly depended upon, during the century just closed, by 
the makers of furniture of the more expensive grades. 
Black walnut wood is brown, with purplish tones in it, and 
a silvery lustre, when polished. Its hardness and strength 
commend it to the boat and ship builder. Gunstock 
factories use quantities of this wood. In furniture and in- 
terior woodwork, the curly walnut, found in the old stumps 
of trees cut long before, is especially sought for veneering 
panels. Old furniture, of designs that have passed out, 



32 TREES 

are often sold to the factories, and their seasoned wood cut 
thin for veneering. 

Walnut trees one hundred and fifty feet high were not 
uncommon in the forests primeval, in the basin of the Ohio 
and Wabash rivers. These giants held up their majestic 
heads far over the tops of oaks and maples in the woods. 
They were slaughtered, rolled together, and burned by the 
pioneers, clearing the land for agriculture. These men had 
a special grudge against walnut trees, they were so stub- 
born — so hard to make away with. How unfortunate it is 
that our ancestors had the patience to go forward and con- 
quer the unconquerable ones. Had they weakly sur- 
rendered, and let these trees stand, we should have had 
them for the various uses to which we put the finest lumber 
trees to-day. 

Unhappily, the growing of young trees has not been ex- 
tensively undertaken to replace those destroyed. The 
newer forestry is awake to the need, and the loss may be 
made good, from this time forward. 

The black walnut is nearly globular, deeply sculptured, 
with a sweet nut rich in oil, very good if one eats but a few 
at a time. Locally, they find their way to market, but 
they soon become rancid in the grocer's barrel. At home, 
boys spread them, in their smooth, yellow-pitted husks, on 
the roof of the woodshed, for instance, so the husks can 
dry while the nuts are seasoning. No walnut opens its 
husk in regular segments, as the hickories all do. But the 
husking is not hard. The thick shells require careful man- 
agement of the hammer or nut-cracker, to avoid breaking 
the meats. 

Dark as is its wood and bark, no walnut tree in full leaf 
is sombre. The foliage is bright, lustrous, yellow-green, 



THE WALNUTS 33 

graceful, dancing. A majestic tree, with a luxuriant 
crown from May till September, this walnut needs room 
to display its notable contour and size. It deserves more 
popularity than it enjoys as a tree for parks. No tree is 
more interesting to watch as it grows. 

The bitter spongy husk deters the squirrels from gnaw- 
ing into the nut until the husk is dry and brittle. Hidden 
in the ground, the shell absorbs moisture, and winter frost 
cracks it, by the gentle but irresistible force of expanding 
particles of water as they turn to ice. So the plantlet has 
no hindrance to its growth when spring opens. 

Imitating nature, the nurseryman lays his walnuts and 
butternuts in a bed of sand or gravel, one layer above an- 
other, and lets the rain and the cold do the rest. In 
spring the " stratified " nuts are ready for planting. Some- 
times careful cracking of the shell prepares the nut to 
sprout when planted. 

The Japanese walnuts (J. Sieboldiana and J. cordiformis) 
are grown to a limited extent in states where the English 
walnut is not hardy. They are butternuts, and very 
much superior to our native species. A Manchurian wal- 
nut has been successfully introduced, but few people 
but the pioneers in nut culture know anything about these 
exotic species. South America and the West Indies have 
native species. So we shall not be surprised, in our 
travels, to find walnuts in the woods of many continents. 

The English Walnut 

J. regia, Linn. 

Originally at home in the forests of Persia and north- 
western India, the English walnut was grown for its ex- 






34 TREES 

cellent nuts in the warm countries of Europe and Asia. 
It was a tree of great reputation when Linnaeus gave it the 
specific name that means royal. Indeed, this is the tree 
which gave to all the family the name " Juglans" which 
means, "Jove's acorn," in the writings of Roman authors. 
Kings made each other presents of these nuts, and so the 
range of the species was extended, even to England, by the 
planting of nuts from the south. 

It became the fad of gardeners, before the fifteenth 
century, to improve the varieties, and to compete with 
others in getting the thinnest shell, the largest nut, the 
sweetest kernel, just as horticulturists do now. In 1640 
the herbalist Parkinson wrote about a variety of "French 
wallnuts, which are the greatest of any, within whose shell 
are often put a paire of fine gloves, neatly foulded up to- 
gether." Another variety he mentions "whose shell is so 
tender that it may easily be broken between one's fingers, 
and the nut itsself is very sweete." 

In England, the climate prevents the ripening of the 
fruit of walnut trees. But the nuts reach good size, and 
are pickled green, for use as a relish; or made into catsups — 
husks and all being used, when a needle will still puncture 
the fruit with ease. 

In America, the first importations of the walnuts came 
from the Mediterranean countries, by way of England, 
"the mother country." In contradistinction to our 
black walnuts and butternuts, these nuts from overseas 
were called by the loyal colonists "English walnuts," 
and so they remain to this day in the markets of this 
country. 

It was natural and easy to grow these trees in the South- 
ern states. But little had been done to improve them, or 



THE WALNUTS 35 

to grow them extensively for market, until California 
undertook to compete with Europe for the growing Amer- 
ican trade. Now the crop reaches thousands of tons 
of nuts, and millions of dollars come back each year 
to the owners of walnut ranches. Hardy varieties have 
extended the range of nut-orcharding; and so has the 
grafting of tender varieties on stock of the native black 
walnut of California. 

The beauty of this Eurasian walnut tree would justify 
planting it merely for the adornment of parks and private 
grounds. Its broad dome of bright green foliage in sum- 
mer, and its clean gray trunk and bare branches in winter, 
are attractive features in a landscape that has few de- 
ciduous trees. A fine dooryard tree that bears delicious 
nuts, after furnishing a grateful shade all summer, is de- 
serving the popularity it enjoys with small farmers and 
owners of the simplest California homes. 

As a lumber tree, the walnut of Europe has long been 
commercially important. It is the staple wood for gun- 
stocks, and during wars the price has reached absurd 
heights, one country bidding against its rival to get con- 
trol of the visible supply. Furniture makers use quanti- 
ties of the curly walnut often found in stumps of old trees. 
The heart wood, always a rich brown, is often watered and 
crimped in curious and intricate patterns, that when 
polished blend the loveliest dark and light shades with the 
characteristic walnut lustre, to reward the skilled crafts- 
man. 

In the United States this wood is rarely seen, because 
the trees are grown for their nuts. They require several 
years to come into bearing, are long-lived, have few ene- 
mies, and need little pruning as bearing age approaches. 



36 TREES 



THE HICKORIES 

Americans have a right to be proud that the twelve 
hickory species are all natives of this country. Eleven of 
the twelve are found in the eastern half of the United 
States; one, only, strays into the forests of Mexico. No 
other country has a native hickory. 

Indians of the Algonkin tribe named this tree family, and 
taught the early colonists in Virginia to use for food the 
ripe nuts of the shagbark and mockernut. After cracking 
the shells, the procedure was to boil and strain the mixture, 
which gave them a rich, soupy liquid. Into this they 
stirred a coarse meal, made by grinding between stones 
the Indian corn. The mush was cooked slowly, then made 
into cakes, which were baked on hot stones. No more 
delicious nor wholesome food can be imagined than this. 
Frequently the soup was eaten alone; its name, "Powco- 
hicora," gave the trees their English name, part of which 
the botanist, Raffinesque, took, Latinized, and set up as the 
name of the genus. 

Cut a twig of any hickory tree, and you realize that the 
wood is close-grained and very springy. The pith is solid, 
with a star form in cross-section, corresponding to the 
ranking of the leaves on the twigs. The wind strews no 
branches under a hickory tree, for the fibres of the wood are 
strong and flexible enough to resist a hurricane. (See illus- 
trations, pages 6, 71.) 

Hickory wood is unequalled for implements which must 
resist great strain and constant jarring. The running-gear 
of wagons and carriages, handles of pitchforks, axes, and 
like implements require it. Thin strips, woven into bask- 



THE HICKORIES 37 

ets for heavy market use, are almost indestructible. No 
fuel is better than seasoned hickory wood. 

Shagbark or Shellbark 

Hicoria ovata, Britt. 

The shagbark has gray bark that is shed in thin, tough, 
vertical strips. Attached by the middle, these strips often 
spring outward, at top and bottom, giving the bole a most 
untidy look (see illustrations, pages, 6, 71), and threatening 
the trousers of any boy bold enough to try climbing into 
the smooth-barked top to beat off the nuts. 

In spite of the ragged-looking trunk, a shagbark grown 
in the open is a noble tree. The limbs are angular, but 
they express strength to the utmost twig, as the bare ob- 
long of the tree's lofty head is etched against a wintry sky. 

The nuts are the chief blessing this tree confers upon the 
youngsters of any neighborhood. Individual trees differ 
in the size and quality of their fruit. The children know 
the best trees, and so do the squirrels, their chief com- 
petitors at harvest time. 

Frost causes the eager lads to seek their favorite trees, 
and underneath they find the four-parted husks dropping 
away from the angled nuts. There is no waiting, as with 
walnuts, for husking time to come. The tree is prompt 
about dropping its fruit. Spread for a few weeks, where 
they can dry, and thieving squirrels will let them alone, 
hickory nuts reach perfect condition for eating. Fat, 
proteid, and carbohydrates are found in concentrated form 
in those delicious meats. We may not know their dietetic 
value, but we all remember how good and how satisfying 
they are. No tree Tarings to the human family more val- 






38 TREES 

uable offerings than this one, rugged and ragged though it 
be. 

The Big Shellbark 

H. lacinata, Sarg. 

The big shellbark, like the little shellbark, is a common 
forest tree in the Middle West and Middle Atlantic states. 
It has a shaggy trunk, stout limbs, picturesquely angular, 
and it bears nuts that are sweet and of delicious flavor. In 
winter the orange-colored twigs, large terminal buds, and 
persistent stems of the dead leaves are distinguishing 
traits. These petioles shed the five to nine long leaflets 
and then stay on, their enlarged bases firmly tied by fibre 
bundles to the scar, though the stems writhe and curve as 
if eager to be free to die among the fallen blades. 

"King nuts," as the fruit of this tree is labelled in the 
markets, do not equal the little hickory nuts in quality, 
and their thick shells cover meats very little larger. But 
the nut in its husk on the tree is often three inches long — ■ 
a very impressive sight to hungry nut-gatherers. 

In summer the downy leaf -linings and the uncommon 
size of the leaves best distinguish this tree from its near 
relative, whose five leaflets are smooth throughout, small, 
very rarely counting seven. 

The Pecan 

H. Pecan, Britt. 

The pecan tree bears the best nuts in the hickory family. 
This species is coming to be a profitable orchard tree in 
many sections of the South. Most of the pecan nuts in the 




See page \B 



WHITE OAK 




See page 51 
BUR, OR MOSSY-CUP, OAK LEAVES AND FRUIT 



THE HICKORIES 39 

market come from wild trees in the Mississippi Basin. 
But late years have seen great strides taken to establish 
pecan growing as a paying horticultural enterprise in 
states outside, as well as within, the tree's natural range. 
And these efforts are succeeding. 

Experiment stations have tested seedling trees and 
selected varieties of known merit, until they know by 
actual experiment that pecans can be raised successfully 
in the Carolinas and in other states where the native 
species does not grow wild. Thin-shelled varieties, with 
the astringent red shell-lining almost eliminated, have 
been bred by selection, and propagated by building on 
native stock. The trees have proved to be fast-growing, 
early-fruiting, and easy to grow and protect from 
enemies. 

The market pays the highest price for pecans. The 
popularity of this nut is deserved, because by analysis it 
has the highest food value combined with the most deli- 
cate and delicious flavor. No nut is so rich in nutriment. 
None has so low a percentage of waste. The demand for 
nuts is constantly increasing as the public learns that the 
proteid the body needs can be obtained from nuts as well as 
from meat. 

Pecans have suffered in competition with other nuts be- 
cause they are difficult to get out of the shells without 
breaking the meats. The old-fashioned hammer and 
block is not the method for them. A cracker I saw in use 
on the street corner in Chicago delighted me. Clamped 
to the nut- vendor's stall, it received the nut between two 
steel cups and, by the turn of a wheel, crowded it so that 
the shell buckled and broke where it is thinnest, around 
the middle, and the meat came out whole. 



40 TREES 

The Mockernut 

H. alba, Britt. 

The mockernut is a mockery to him who hopes for nuts 
like those of either shagbark. The husk is often three 
inches long. Inside is a good-sized nut, angled above the 
middle, suggesting the shagbark. But what a thick, ob- 
stinate shell, when one attempts to "break and enter!" 
And what a trifling, insipid meat one finds, to repay the 
effort ! Quite often there is nothing but a spongy remnant 
or the shell is empty. (See illustration, page 7.) 

As a shade tree, the mockernut has real value, showing 
in winter a tall, slender pyramidal form, with large termi- 
nal buds tipping the velvety, resinous twigs. The bark is 
smooth as that of an ash, with shallow, wavy furrows, as if 
surfaced with a silky layer of new healing tissue, thrown up 
to fill up all depressions. Mockernut leaves are large, 
downy, yellow-green, turning to gold in autumn. Crushed 
they give out an aroma suggesting a delicate perfume. 

The flowers are abundant, and yet the most surprising 
show of colors on this tree comes in late April, when the 
great buds swell. The outer scales fall, and the inner ones 
expand into ruddy silken sheathes that stand erect around 
the central cluster of leaves, not yet awake, and every 
branch seems to hold up a great red tulip! The sight is 
wonderful. Nothing looks more flower-like than these 
opening hickory buds, and to the unobserving passerby 
the transformation is nothing short of a miracle. In a day, 
the leaves rise and spread their delicate leaflets, lengthen- 
ing and becoming smooth, as the now useless red scales 
fall in a shower to the ground. 



THE HICKORIES 41 

The Pignut 

H. glabra, Britt. 

Thepignut deserves the better name, "smooth hickory/' 
a more ingratiating introduction to strangers. A graceful, 
symmetrical tree, with spreading limbs that end in deli- 
cate, pendulous branches, and gray bark checked into a 
maze of intersecting furrows, it is an ornament to any park, 
even in the dead of winter. In summer the tree laughs in 
the face of the sun, its smooth, glossy, yellow-green leaflets, 
five to seven on a stem, lined with pale green or yellow. In 
spring the clustered fringes among the opening leaves are 
the green and gold stamen flowers. The curiously angled 
fertile flowers, at the tips of twigs, are green, with yellow 
stigmas. Autumn turns the foliage to orange and brown, 
and lets fall the pear-shaped or rounded fruit, each nut 
obscurely four-angled and held fast at the base by the thin, 
4-ridged husk, that splits scarcely to the middle. The 
kernel is insipid, sometimes bitter, occasionally rather 
sweet. Country boys scorn the pignut trees, leaving their 
fruit for eager but unsophisticated nut-gatherers from the 
towns. 

Pigs used to be turned into the woods to fatten on beech- 
and oak-" mast." They eagerly devoured the thin-shelled 
nuts of H. glabra, and thus the tree earned the friendly re- 
gard of farmers, and a name that preserves an interesting 
bit of pioneer history. 

The range of the pignut is from Maine to Florida on the 
Atlantic seaboard, west to the middle of Nebraska and 
Texas, and from Ontario and Michigan south to the 
Gulf. 



42 TREES 

THE BEECH 

The American Beech 

Fagus Americanus, Sweet. 

One of the most widely distributed trees in our country, 
this is also one of the most useful and most beautiful in any 
forest. It is the sole representative of its genus in the 
Western Hemisphere. One species is a valuable timber tree 
in Europe. Three are natives of Asia. A genus near of kin 
includes the beech trees of the Southern Hemisphere, 
twelve species in all. There is closer resemblance, however, 
between our beeches and their next of kin, the chestnuts 
and oaks. 

From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from Florida 
to Texas, from New England to Wisconsin, beech trees grow; 
and where they grow they are very likely to form "pure for- 
ests," on the slopes of mountains and rich river bottoms. 
The largest specimens grow in the basin of the lower Ohio 
River, and on the warm slopes of the Alleghany Mountains. 

Standing alone, with room for full development, the 
beech is a fine, symmetrical tree, with horizontal or slightly 
drooping branches, numerous, thickly set with slender, 
flexible twigs. The stout trunk supports a round or 
conical head of very dense foliage. One hundred and 
twenty feet is the maximum height, with a trunk diameter 
of three to four feet. (See illustrations, "pages 22, 30.) 

The older the trees, the greater the amount of red heart 
wood in proportion to the white sap-wood, next to the 
bark. Red and white beech wood are distinguished by 
lumbermen. Red beech makes superior floors, tool- 



THE BEECH 43 

handles, chairs, and the like, and there is no more perfect 
fuel than seasoned beech wood. 

It is unreasonable to think that any but the blind could live 
where beech trees grow and not know these trees at a glance. 
The bark is close, unfurrowed, gray, often almost white, and 
marked with blotches, often nearly round of paler hue. 

The branches are dark and smooth and the twigs pol- 
ished to the long, pointed winter buds. Throughout, the 
tree is a model of elegant attire, both in color and texture 
of the investing bark. 

In the growing season the leaves are the tree's chief at- 
traction. They are closely plaited, and covered with 
silvery down, when the bud scales are pushed off in the 
spring. In a day, the protective fuzz disappears, and the 
full-grown leaf is seen, thin, strongly feather-veined, uni- 
formly green, saw-toothed. Summer shows the foliage 
mass almost as fresh, and autumn turns its green to pale 
gold. Still unblemished, it clings, often until the end of 
winter, lighting the woods with a ghostly glow, as the rain 
fades the color out. The silky texture is never quite lost. 

The delicate flowers of the beech tree are rarely seen, 
they fade so soon; the stamen tassels drop off and the 
forming nuts, with their prickly burs, are more and more in 
evidence in the leaf angles near the ends of new shoots. 
With the first frost the burs open, the four walls part, re- 
leasing the two nuts, three-angled, like a grain of buckwheat. 

The name of this grain was suggested by its resemblance 
in form to the beechnut, or "buck mast," sweet, nutritious 
food of so many dwellers in the forest. Buck mast was the 
food of man when he lived in caves and under the forest 
cover. We know that beechnuts have a rich, delicate 
flavor that offsets the disadvantages of their small size 



44 TREES 

and the difficulty of opening their thin but leathery shells. 
All along the centuries European peoples have counted on 
this nut, and oil expressed from it, for their own food and 
the dried leaves for forage for their cattle in winter. 

The American pioneer turned his hogs into the beech 
woods to fatten on the beech-mast, and Thanksgiving 
turkeys were always finer if they competed with the wild 
turkey on the same fare. 

Birds and lesser mammals do much to plant trees when 
they carry away, for immediate or future use, seeds that 
are not winged for flight. Beechnuts are light enough to 
profit, to some extent, by a high wind. And beech trees in 
their infancy do well under the shade of other trees. So 
each fruiting tree is the mother of many young ones. But 
the seedling trees are not so numerous and important as 
the sapling growth that rises from the roots of parent 
trees. By these alone, a few isolated beeches will manage 
to take possession of the ground around them and to 
clothe it with so dense a foliage screen that all young 
growth, except certain ferns and grasses, dies for lack of 
sun. Before we can realize what is going on, the tract is a 
pure forest of beech, rapidly enlarging on all sides by the 
same campaign of extension. 



THE CHESTNUTS 

Chestnut and Chinquapin 

Castanea dentata, Borh., and C. pumila, Mill. 

Our native chestnut and its little brother, the chin- 
quapin, are the American cousins of the sweet chestnut of 



THE CHESTNUTS 45 

southern Europe. Japan has contributed to American 
horticulture a native species which bears large but not 
very sweet nuts, that are good when cooked. Our two 
trees bear sweet nuts, of a flavor that no mode of cooking 
improves. In truth, there is no finer nut; and the time to 
enjoy it to the highest degree is a few weeks after the frost 
opens the burs and lets the nuts fall. "Along about 
Thanksgiving," they have lost some of their moisture and 
are prime. 

In foreign countries the chestnut is a rich, nourishing 
food, comparable to the potato. Who could go into 
ecstasies over a vegetable that is a staple food for the 
peasants of Europe, Asia, and North Africa? Our chestnut 
is no staple. It is a delicacy. It is treasure trove from the 
autumn woods, and the gathering of the crop is a game in 
which boys and squirrels are rivals. 

Ernest Thompson Seton, always a boy, knows the im- 
patience with which the opening of the burs is watched for, 
as the belated frosts keep off, and the burs hang tantaliz- 
ingly closed. The cruel wounds made by the spines and 
the raw taste of the immature nuts are poor recompense 
for the labor of nutting before Nature gives the sign that 
all's ready. 

Here is Mr. Seton's estimate of the chestnut of " brown 
October's woods." 

"Whenever you see something kept under lock and key, 
bars and bolts, guarded and double-guarded, you may be 
sure it is very precious, greatly coveted. The nut of this 
tree is hung high aloft, wrapped in a silk wrapper, which is 
enclosed in a case of sole leather, which again is packed in a 
mass of shock-absorbing, vermin-proof pulp, sealed up in a 
waterproof, iron-wood case, and finally cased in a vege- 



46 TREES 

table porcupine of spines, almost impregnable. There is 
no nut so protected; there is no nut in our woods to com- 
pare with it as food." 

What a disaster then is the newly arisen bark disease 
that has already killed every chestnut tree throughout 
large areas in the Eastern states. Scientists have thus far 
struggled with it in vain and it is probable that all chest- 
nuts east of the Rockies are doomed. 

Chinquapins grow to be medium-sized trees in Texas 
and Arkansas, but east of the Mississippi they are smaller, 
and east of the Alleghanies, mere shrubby undergrowth, 
covering rocky banks or crouching along swamp borders. 
They are smaller throughout, but resemble the chestnut 
in leaf, flowers, and fruit. The bur contains a single 
nut. 

The chestnut tree grows large and attains great age, its 
sturdy, rough gray trunk crowned with an oblong head of 
irregular branches, hidden in summer by the abundant 
foliage mass. (See illustration, page 23.) The ugly cripple 
that lightning has maimed covers its wounds when May 
wakes the late-opening buds and the leaves attain full 
size. 

Each leaf tapers at both ends, its length three or four 
times its width. Strong-ribbed and sharp-toothed, and 
wavy on the midrib, dark, polished, like leather, these 
units form a wonderful dome, lightened in midsummer by 
the pencil-like plumes of the staminate flowers, with the 
fertile ones at their bases. As autumn comes on the leaf 
crown turns to gold, and the mature fruits are still green 
spiny balls. The first frost and the time to drop the nuts 
are dates that every schoolboy knows come close together. 

When a chestnut tree falls by the axe, the roots restore 



THE OAKS 47 

the loss by sending up sprouts around the stump. The 
mouldering pile nourishes a circle of young trees, full of 
vigor, because they have the large tree's roots gathering 
food for them. No wonder their growth is rapid. 

Besides this mode of reproduction, chestnut trees, grow- 
ing here and there throughout a mixed forest, are the off- 
spring of trees whose nuts were put away, or dropped and 
lost by squirrels. When spring relieves the danger of 
famine, many of the rodent class abandon their winter 
stores before they are all devoured. Such caches add 
many nut trees to our native woods. 



THE OAKS 

This is the great family of the cup-bearers, whose fruit, 
the acorn, is borne in a scaly cup that never breaks into 
quarters, as does the husk that holds a chestnut, beechnut, 
or hickory nut. All oak trees bear acorns as soon as they 
come to fruiting age. This is the sign by which they are 
known the world over. Seldom is a full-grown oak without 
its little insignia, for the cups cling after the nut falls, and 
one grand division of the family requires two seasons to 
mature its fruit. For this reason, half-grown acorns are 
seen on the twigs after the ripe ones fall. 

We cannot say of oak trees that they all have sturdy 
trunks, rough bark, and gnarled limbs, for not all of them 
have these characteristics. But there is a certain likeness 
in oak leaves. They are simple, five-ranked, generally 
oval, and the margins are generally cut into lobes by deep 
or shallow bays. Most oak leaves have leathery texture, 
strong veins, and short petioles. They are leaves that out- 



48 TREES 

last the summer, and sometimes persist until spring 
growth unseats the stalks; sometimes, as in the "live oaks," 
they hang on three to five years. 

The twigs of oak trees are more or less distinctly five- 
angled, and the winter buds cluster at the ends. This in- 
sures a group of young shoots, crowded with leaves, on 
the ends of branches, and a dense outer dome of foliage on 
the tree. 

Nearly three hundred distinct species of oaks are recog- 
nized by botanists, and the list is growing. New species 
are in the making. For instance, a white oak and a bur 
oak grow near enough for the wind to " cross-fertilize " 
their pistillate flowers. The acorns of such mixed parent- 
age produce trees that differ from both parents, yet reveal 
characteristics of both. They are "hybrids," and may be 
called new varieties of either parent. Other species of oak 
are intercrossing by the same process — the interchange of 
pollen at the time of blossoming. This proves that the oak 
family is young, compared with many other families, whose 
members are too distantly related to intercross. 

Though geologically young, the oak family is one of the 
most important, furnishing timber of superior strength and 
durability for bridge-building, ship-building, and other 
construction work. Tanning has depended largely upon 
oak bark. As fuel, all oak trees are valuable. 

Fifty species of oak are native to North American 
forests. Twice as many grow east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains as west of the Great Divide. No species naturally 
passes this barrier. The temperate zone species extend 
southward into tropical regions, by keeping to high alti- 
tudes. Thus we find American oaks in the Andes and 
Colombia; Asiatic species occur in the Indian Archi- 



THE OAKS 49 

pelago. No Old World species is native to America. 
Each continent has its own. 

East of the Rocky Mountains the oaks hold a place of 
preeminence among broad-leaved trees. They are trees of 
large size, and they often attain great age. They are 
beautiful trees, and therefore highly valued for ornamental 
planting. This has led to the introduction of oaks from 
other countries. We have set European, Japanese, and 
Siberian oaks in our finest parks. Europe has borrowed 
from our woods the red oak and many others. All coun- 
tries are richer by this horticultural exchange of trees. 

Our native oaks fall into two groups: the annual-fruit- 
ing and the biennial-fruiting species. The first group 
matures its acorns in a single season ; the second requires 
two seasons. It happens that annuals have leaves with 
rounded lobes, while biennials have leaves with lobes that 
end in angles and bristly tips. The bark of the annual 
trees is generally pale; that of the biennials, dark. Hence 
the white oak group and the black oak group may be 
easily distinguished at a glance, by the bark, the leaf, and 
the acorn crop. 



THE WHITE OAK GROUP 

The White Oak 

Quercus alba, Linn. 

The white oak has no rival for first place in the esteem 
of tree-lover and lumberman. Its broad, rounded dome, 
sturdy trunk, and strong arms (see illustration, page 88), 
and its wide-ranging roots enable a solitary I roe to resist 



50 



TREES 



storms that destroy or maim other kinds. Strength and 
tenacity in the fibre of root and branch make it possible for 
individuals to live to a great age, far beyond the two cen- 
turies required to bring it to maturity. Such trees stir 
within us a feeling of reverence and patriotism. They are 
patriarchs whose struggles typify the pioneer's indomitable 
resistance to forces that destroyed all but the strong. 

White oak trees in the forest grow tall, lose their lower 
branches early, and lift but a small head to the sun. The 
logs, quarter-sawed, reveal the broad, gleaming "mir- 
rors" that make a white oak table beautiful. The 
botanist calls these the medullary rays — thin, irregular 
plates of tissue-building cells, that extend out from the 
central pith, sometimes quite to the sap-wood, crowding 
between the wood fibres, which in the heart-wood are no 
longer alive. A slab will show only an edge of these mir- 
rors. But any section from bark to pith will reveal them. 

The pale brown wood of the white oak distinctly shows 
the narrow rings of annual growth. Each season begins 
with a coarse, porous band of "spring wood," followed by a 
narrower band of fine, close-grained "summer wood." 
White oak is streaked with irregular, dark lines. These 
are the porous lines of spring wood, discolored by foreign 
matter. Count them, allow a year for each, and you know 
how long one white oak tree required to make an inch of 
wood. 

The supreme moment in the white oak's year comes in 
spring, when the gray old tree wakes, the buds swell and 
cast off their brown scales, and the young leaves appear. 
The tree is veiled, not with a garment of green, but with a 
mist of rose and silver, each twig hung with soft limp 
velvety leaves, red-lined, and covered with a close mat of 



THE OAKS 51 

silky hairs. It is a spectacle that seems unreal, because it 
is so lovely and gone so soon. The protecting hairs and 
pigments disappear, and the green leafage takes its place, 
brightened by the yellow tassels of the stamen flowers, and 
the growing season is on. 

In autumn the pale-lined leaves of the white oak turn 
slowly to sombre violet and dull purplish tones. Clinging 
there, after the acorns have all fallen and been gathered by 
squirrels, the foliage fades into the gray of the bark and 
may persist until spring growth sets in. 



The Bur Oak 

Q. macrocarpa, Michx. 

The bur oak (see illustration, page 39) is called the mossy- 
cup on account of the loose, fringed scales about the rim of 
the cup that holds the large acorn — largest in the whole 
oak family. Often the nut is completely enclosed by the 
cup; often it is small. This variable fruit is sweet, and it 
is the winter store of many furry wood-folk. 

The leaf has the rounded lobing of the family, with the 
special peculiarity of being almost cut in two by a pair of 
deep and wide opposite sinuses, between the broad middle, 
and the narrow, tapering base. Not all leaves show this 
odd form, but it is the prevailing pattern. The dark green 
blade has a pale, fuzzy lining, that lasts until the leaves 
turn brown and yellow. 

The bur oak is a rugged, ragged tree, compared with the 
white oak. Its irregular form is picturesque, its wayward 
limbs are clothed in a loose garment of untidy, half-shed 
bark. The twigs are roughened with broad, corky wings. 



52 TREES 

The trunk is brownish, with loosened flakes of gray, sep- 
arated by shallow fissures. 

The wood is classed with white oak, though darker in 
color. It has the same ornamental mirrors, dear to the 
heart of the cabinet-maker. It serves all the purposes for 
which a tough, strong, durable wood is needed. 

The range of the species is from Nova Scotia to Mon- 
tana, and it grows in large tracts from Winnipeg to Texas, 
doing well in the arid soil of western Nebraska and 
Dakota. Suckers from the roots spread these trees till 
they form the "oak openings" of the bluffs of the Missouri 
and other streams of Iowa and Minnesota. In Kansas 
it is the commonest oak tree. The largest trees of this 
species grow in rich bottom lands in the Ohio Valley. 

The Post Oak 

Q. minor, Sarg. 

The post oak has wood that is noted for its durability 
when placed in contact with the soil. It is in demand for 
fence posts, railroad ties, and for casks and boat timbers. 
"Iron oak" is a name that refers to the qualities of the 
wood. "Knees" of post oak used to be especially in 
demand. 

In the Mississippi Basin this tree attains its largest 
size and greatest abundance on gravelly uplands. It is 
the commonest oak of central Texas, on the sandy plains 
and limestone hills. Farther north, it is more rare and 
smaller, becoming an undersized oak in New York and 
westward to Kansas. 

In winter the post oak keeps its cloak of harsh-feeling, 
thick, coarse- veined leaves. Tough fibres fasten them to 



THE OAKS 53 

the twigs. In summer the foliage mass is almost black, 
with gray leaf -linings. The lobes and sinuses are large 
and squarish, the blades four or five inches long. The 
limbs, tortuous, horizontal, form a dense head. 

The Chestnut Oak 

Q. Prinus, Linn. 

The chestnut oak has many nicknames and all are descrip- 
tive. Its leaves are similar in outline and size to those of 
the chestnut. The margin is coarsely toothed, not lobed, 
like the typical oak leaf. "Tanbark oak" refers to the 
rich store of tannin in the bark, which makes this species 
the victim of the bark-peeler for the tanneries wherever 
it grows. "Rock chestnut oak" is a title that lumbermen 
have given to the oak with exceptionally hard wood, heavy 
and durable in soil, adapted for railroad ties, posts, and the 
like. 

Unlike other white oaks, the bark of this tree is dark in 
color and deeply fissured. Without a look at the leaves, 
one might call it a black oak. 

The centre of distribution for this species seems to be the 
foothill country of the Appalachian Mountains, in Ten- 
nessee and North Carolina. Here it predominates, and 
grows to its largest size. From Maine to Georgia it 
chooses rocky, dry uplands, grows vigorously and rapidly, 
and its acorns often sprout before falling from the 
cup! 

The chestnut oak is one of the most desirable kinds of 
trees to plant in parks. It is symmetrical, with handsome 
bark and foliage. The leaves turn yellow and keep their 
fine texture through the season. The acorn is one of the 



54 TREES 

handsomest and largest, and squirrels are delighted with 
its sweet kernel. 



The Mississippi Valley Chestnut Oak 

Q. acuminata, Sarg. 

In the Mississippi Valley the chestnut oak is Q. acu- 
minata, Sarg., with a more slender and more finely -toothed 
leaf that bears a very close resemblance to that of the 
chestnut. The foliage mass is brilliant, yellow-green, each 
leaf with a pale lining, and hung on a flexible stem. 
"Yellow oak" is another name, earned again when in 
autumn the leaves turn to orange shades mingled with red. 

On the Wabash River banks these trees surpass one 
hundred feet in height and three feet in diameter. The 
base of the trunk is often buttressed. Back from the rich 
bottom lands, on limestone and flinty ridges, where water 
is scarce, these trees are stunted. In parks they are 
handsome, and very desirable. The bark is silvery white, 
tinged with brown, and rarely exceeds one half an inch in 
thickness. 

The Swamp White Oak 

Q. platanoides, Sudw. 

The swamp white oak loves to stand in wet ground, 
sometimes even in actual swamps. Its small branches 
shed their bark like the buttonwood, the flakes curling 
back and showing the bright green under layer. On 
the trunk the bark is thick, and broken irregularly 
into broad, flat ridges coated with close, gray-brown 
scales often tinged with red. 




$M page 65 



HORSE-CHESTNUT IN BLOSSOM 




See page 8c 



WEEPING WILLOW 



THE OAKS 55 

In its youth the swamp white oak is comely and sym- 
metrical, its untidy moulting habit concealed by the 
abundant foliage. One botanist calls this species bicolor, 
because the polished yellow-green upper surfaces contrast 
so pleasantly with the white scurf that lines each leaf 
throughout the summer. Yellow is the autumn color. 
Never a hint of red warms this oak of the swamps, even 
when planted as a street or park tree in well-drained 
ground. 

The Basket Oak 

Q. Michauxii, Nutt. 

The basket oak is so like the preceding species as to be 
listed by some botanists as the southern form of Q. 
platanoides. They meet on a vague line that crosses 
Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Both have large 
leaves silver-lined, with undulating border, of the chestnut 
oak pattern. Both are trees of the waterside, tall, with 
round heads of gnarled limbs. The red-tinged white 
bark sets the basket oak apart from all others. Its head 
is broader and its trunk stouter than in the other species. 
The paired acorns are almost without stalks, the nuts 
large, the kernels sweet. In autumn, farmers turn their 
hogs into the woods to fatten on this oak-mast. The 
edibility of these nuts may account for the common name, 
"cow oak." 

The wood splits readily into thin, tough plates of the 
summer wood. This is because the layer formed in 
spring is very porous. Bushel baskets, china crates, and 
similar woven wares are made of these oak splints. The 
wood is also used in cooperage and implement construc- 
tion, and it makes excellent firewood. 



56 TREES 

The Live Oak 

Q. Virginiana, Mill. 

The live oak with its small oval leaves, without a cleft 
in the plain margins, looks like anything but an oak to the 
Northerner who walks along a street planted with this 
evergreen in Richmond or New Orleans. It is not 
especially good for street use, though often chosen. It 
develops a broad, rounded dome, by the lengthening 
of the irregular limbs in a horizontal direction. The 
trunk becomes massive and buttressed to support the 
burden. 

The "knees" of this oak were in keenest demand for 
ship-building before steel took the place of wood. In all 
lines of construction, this lumber ranks with the best white 
oak. The short trunk is the disadvantage, from the 
lumberman's viewpoint. Its beauty, when polished, 
would make it the wood par excellence for elegant furni- 
ture, except that it is difficult to work, and it splits 
easily. 

The Spanish moss that drapes the limbs of live oaks in 
the South gives them a greenish pallor and an unkempt 
appearance that seems more interesting than beautiful 
to many observers. It is only when the sight is familiar, 
I think, that it is pleasing. Northern trees are so clean- 
limbed and so regular about shedding their leaves when 
they fade, that these patient hosts, loaded down with the 
pendent skeins of the tillandsia, seem to be imposed upon. 
In fact, the "moss" is not a parasite, sapping the life of 
the tree, but a lodger, that finds its own food supply with- 
out help. 



THE OAKS 57 

California White Oak 

Q. lobata, Nee. 

The California white oak far exceeds the Eastern white 
oak in the spread of its mighty arms. The dome is often 
two hundred feet in breadth and the trunk reaches ten 
feet in diameter. Such specimens are often low in pro- 
portion, the trunk breaking into its grand divisions within 
twenty feet of the ground. The ultimate spray is made of 
slender, supple twigs, on which the many-lobed leaves 
taper to the short stalks. Dark green above, the blades 
are lined with pale pubescence. The acorns are slender, 
pointed, and often exceed two inches in length. Their cups 
are comparatively shallow, and they fall out when ripe. 

The bare framework of one of these giant oaks shows a 
wonderful maze of gnarled branches, whose grotesque 
angularities are multiplied with added years and com- 
plicated by damage and repair. 

It is hard to say whether the grace and nobility of the 
verdure-clad tree, or the tortuous branching system re- 
vealed in winter, appeals more strongly to the admiration 
of the stranger and the pride of the native Calif ornian, 
who delights in this noble oak at all seasons. Its com- 
paratively worthless wood has spared the trees to adorn the 
park-like landscapes of the wide middle valleys of the 
state. 

Pacific Post Oak 

Q. Garry ana, Hook. 

The Pacific post oak is the only oak in British Columbia, 
whence it follows down the valleys of the Coast Range to 



58 TREES 

the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is a tree nearly one 
hundred feet high, with a broad, compact head, in western 
Washington and Oregon. Dark green, lustrous leaves, 
with paler linings, attain almost a leathery texture when 
full grown. They are four to six inches long and coarsely 
lobed. In autumn they sometimes turn bright scarlet. 

The wood is hard, strong, tough, and close-grained. It 
is employed in the manufacture of wagons and furniture, 
and in ship-building and cooperage. It is a superior fuel. 



THE BLACK OAK GROUP 

A large group of our native oaks require two seasons to 
mature their acorns; have dark-colored bark and foliage, 
have leaves whose lobes are sharp-angled and taper to 
bristly points and tough acorn shells lined with a silky -hairy 
coat. 

The Black Oak 

Q. velutina, Lam. 

The black oak of the vast region east of the Rocky 
Mountains is the type or pattern species. Its leathery, 
dark green leaves are divided by curving sinuses into 
squarish lobes, each ending in one or more bristly tips. 
The lobes are paired, and each has a strong vein from the 
midrib. Underneath, the leaf is always scurfy, even when 
the ripening turns its color from bronze to brown, yellow 
or dull red. 

Under the deep-furrowed, brown surface bark is a yellow 
layer, rich in tannin, and a dyestuff called quercitron. This 
makes the tree valuable for its bark. The wood is coarse- 



THE OAKS 59 

grained* hard, difficult to work, and chiefly employed as 
fuel. 

A distinguishing trait of the bare tree is the large fuzzy 
winter bud. The unfolding leaves in spring are bright red 
above, with a silvery lining. 

The autumn acorn crop may be heavy or light. Trees 
have their "off years," for various reasons. But always, 
as leaves and fruit fall and bare the twigs, one sees, among 
the winter buds, the half-grown acorns waiting for their 
second season of growth. 

The pointed nut soon loosens, for the cup though deep 
has straight sides. The kernel is yellow and bitter. 

The Scarlet Oak 

Q. coccinea, Moench. 

The scarlet oak is like a flaming torch set among the dull 
browns and yellows in our autumnal woods. In spring the 
opening leaves are red; so are the tasselled catkins and the 
forked pistils, that turn into the acorns later on. This is a 
favorite ornamental tree in Europe and our own country. 
Its points of beauty are not all in its colors. 

The tree is slender, delicate in branch, twig, and leaf — 
quite out of the sturdy, picturesque class in which most 
oaks belong. The leaf is thin, silky smooth, its lobes sep- 
arated by sinuses so deep that it is a mere skeleton com- 
pared with the black oak's. The trimness of the leaf is 
matched by the neat acorn, whose scaly cup has none of 
the looseness seen in the burly black oak. The scales are 
smooth, tight-fitting, and they curl in at the rim. 

There is lightness and grace in a scarlet oak, for its twigs 
are slim and supple as a willow's, and the leaves flutter on 



60 TREES 

long, flexible stems. Above the drifts of the first snowfall, 
the brilliance of the scarlet foliage makes a picture long to 
be remembered against the blue of a clear autumnal sky. 
The largest trees of this species grow in the fertile up- 
lands in the Ohio Valley. But the most brilliant hues are 
seen in trees of smaller size, that grow in New England 
woods. In the comparatively dull-hued autumn woods of 
Iowa and Nebraska the scarlet oak is the most vivid and 
most admired tree. 

The Pin Oak 

Q. jpalustris, Linn. 

The pin oak earns its name by the sharp, short, spur- 
like twigs that cluster on the branches, crowding each 
other to death and then persisting to give the tree a bristly 
appearance. The tree in winter bears small resemblance 
to other oaks. The trunk is slender, the shaft carried up 
to the top, as straight as a pine's. The branches are very 
numerous and regular, striking out at right angles from the 
stem, the lower tier shorter than those directly above 
them, and drooping often to the ground. 

On the winter twigs, among the characteristic "pins," 
are the half-grown acorns that proclaim the tree an oak 
beyond a doubt, and a black oak, requiring a second sum- 
mer for the maturing of its fruit. It is likely that there 
will be found on older twigs a few of the full-grown acorns, 
or perhaps only the trim, shallow saucers from which the 
shiny, striped, brown acorns have fallen. Hunt among the 
dead leaves and these little acorns will be discovered for, 
though pretty to look at, they are bitter and squirrels leave 
them where they fall. 



THE OAKS 61 

The leaves match the slender twigs in delicacy of pat- 
tern. Thin, deeply cut, shining, with pale linings, they 
flutter on slender stems, smaller but often matching the 
leaves of the scarlet oak in pattern. Sometimes they are 
more like the red oak in outline. In autumn they turn red 
and are a glory in the woods. 

One trait has made this tree a favorite for shade and 
ornament. It has a shock of fibrous roots, and for this 
reason is easily transplanted. It grows rapidly in any 
moist, rich soil. It keeps its leaves clean and beautiful 
throughout the season. Washington, D. C, has its streets 
planted to native trees, one species lining the sides of a 
single street or avenue for miles. The pin oaks are superb 
on the thoroughfare that reaches from the Capitol to the 
Navy Yard. They retain the beauty of their youth be- 
cause each tree has been given a chance to grow to its best 
estate. In spring the opening leaves and pistillate flowers 
are red, giving the silvery green tree-top a warm flush 
that cheers the passerby. In European countries this 
oak is a prime favorite for public and private parks. 

The Red Oak 

Q. rubra, Linn. 

The red oak grows rapidly, like the pin oak, and is a 
great favorite in parks overseas, where it takes on the rich 
autumnal red shades that give it its name at home. Such 
color is unknown in native woods in England. 

The head of this oak is usually narrow and rounded; 
the branches, short and stout, are inclined to go their own 
way, giving the tree more of picturesqueness than of 
symmetry, as age advances. Sometimes the dome is 



62 TREES 

broad and rounded like that of a white oak, and in the 
woods, where competition is keen, the trunk may reach one 
hundred and fifty feet in height. 

The red oak leaf is large, smooth, rather thin, its oval 
broken by triangular sinuses and forward-aiming lobes, 
that end in bristly points. The blade is broadest between 
the apex and the middle, where the two largest lobes are. 
No oak has leaves more variable than this. 

Under the dark brown, close-knit bark of a full-grown 
red oak tree is a reddish layer that shows in the furrows. 
The twigs and leaf -stems are red. A flush of pink covers 
the opening leaves, and they are lined with white down 
which is soon shed. 

The bloom is very abundant and conspicuous, the fringe- 
like pollen-bearing aments four or five inches long, droop- 
ing from the twigs in clusters, when the leaves are half- 
grown in May. 

The acorns of the red oak are large, and set in shallow 
saucers, with incurving rims. Few creatures taste their 
bitter white kernels. 

The Willow Oak 

Q. Phellos, Linn. 

The willow oak has long, narrow, pointed leaves that 
suggest a willow, and not at all an oak. The supple twigs, 
too, are willow-like, and the tree is a lover of the waterside. 
But there is the acorn, seated in a shallow, scaly cup, like 
a pin oak's. There is no denying the tree's family con- 
nections. 

A southern tree, deservedly popular in cities for shade 
and ornamental planting, it is nevertheless hardy in 



THE OAKS 63 

Philadelphia and New York; and a good little specimen 
seems to thrive in Boston, in the Arnold Arboretum. As 
a lumber tree, the species is unimportant. 

The Shingle, or Laurel, Oak 

Q. imbricaria, Michx. 

The shingle or laurel oak may be met in any woodland 
from Pennsylvania to Nebraska, and south to Georgia and 
Arkansas. It may be large or small; a well-grown speci- 
men reaches sixty feet, with a broad, pyramidal, open head. 

The chief beauty of the tree, at any season, is the foliage 
mass — dark, lustrous, pale lined, the margin usually un- 
broken by any indentations. In autumn the yellow, 
channelled midribs turn red, and all the blades to purplish 
crimson, and this color stays a long time. It is a wonder- 
ful sight to see the evening sunlight streaming through the 
loose, open head of a laurel oak. No wonder people plant 
it for shade and for the beauty it adds to home grounds and 
public parks. 



The Mountain Live Oak 

Q. chrysolepis, Liebm. 

The mountain live oak cannot be seen without climbing 
the western slopes of the mountains from Oregon to Lower 
California, and eastward into New Mexico and Arizona. 
On levels where avalanches deposit detritus from the 
higher slopes, sufficient fertility and moisture are found to 
maintain groves of these oaks, wide-domed, with massive, 
horizontal branches from short, buttressed trunks — the 



64 TREES 

Western counterpart of the live oak of the South, but lack- 
ing the familiar drapery of pale green moss. 

The leaves are leathery, polished, oval blades, one or two 
inches in length, with unbroken margins, abundant on in- 
tricately divided, supple twigs, that droop with their bur- 
den and respond to the lightest breeze. The leaves per- 
sist until the bronze-green new foliage expands to replace 
the old, and keep the tree-tops evergreen. 

The acorns are large, and their thick, shallow saucers are 
covered with yellow fuzz. For this character, the tree is 
called the gold-cup oak. In June, the copious bloom is 
yellow. Even at an altitude of eight thousand feet the 
familiar gold-cup acorns are borne on shrubby oaks not 
more than a foot high ! 

The maximum height of the species is sixty feet. The 
wood is the most valuable oak of the West Coast. It is 
used for wagons and agricultural implements. 

The Live Oak 

Q. agrifolia, Nee. 

The live oak (Q. agrifolia^ Nee.) called also "Encina," is 
the huge-limbed, holly-leaved live oak of the lowlands, 
that reaches its greatest abundance and maximum stature 
in the valleys south of San Francisco Bay. The giant oaks 
of the University campus at Berkeley stretch out ponder- 
ous arms, in wayward fashion, that reach far from the 
stocky trunk and often rest their mighty elbows on the 
ground. The pointed acorns, usually exceeding an inch in 
length, are collected by woodpeckers, and tucked away for 
further reference in holes they make in the bark of the 
same oaks. 



THE HORSE-CHESTNUTS 



65 



From the mountain slopes to the sea, and from Mendo- 
cino County to Lower California, groves of this semi- 
prostrate giant are found, furnishing abundant supply of 
fuel, but no lumber of any consequence, because the 
trunks are so short and the limbs so crooked. 



THE HORSE-CHESTNUTS, OR BUCKEYES 



The Horse-chestnut 

Aesculus Hippocastanum, Linn. 

At the head of this family stands a stately tree, native of 
the mountains of northern Greece and Asia Minor, which 
was introduced into European parks and planted there as 
an avenue tree when landscape gardening came into 
vogue. By way of England it came to America, and in 
Eastern villages one often sees a giant horse-chestnut, per- 
haps the sole remnant of the street planting of an earlier 
day. 

Longfellow's "spreading chestnut tree" was a horse- 
chestnut. And the boys who watched the smith at his 
work doubtless filled their pockets with the shiny brown 
nuts and played the game of "conquerors" every autumn 
as regularly as they flew their kites in spring. What boy 
has not tied a chestnut to each end of a string, whirled 
them round and round at a bewildering rate of speed and 
finally let them fly to catch on telegraph wires, where they 
dangle for months and bother tidy folks? 

The glory of the horse-chestnut comes at blooming 
time, when the upturning branches, like arms of candel- 
abra, are each tipped with a white blossom-cluster, pointed 



66 TREES 

like a candle flame. (See illustration, page 5If.) Each 
flower of the pyramid has its throat-dashes of yellow and 
red, and the curving yellow stamens are thrust far out of 
the dainty ruffled border of the corolla. 

Bees and wasps make music in the tree-top, sucking the 
nectar out of the flowers. Unhappily for us humans, 
caterpillars of the leopard and tussock moths feed upon 
the tender tissues of this tree, defacing the foliage and 
making the whole tree unsightly by their presence. 

Sidewalks under horse-chestnut trees are always littered 
with something the tree is dropping. In early spring the 
shiny, wax-covered leaf buds cast off and they stick to slate 
and cement most tenaciously. Scarcely have the folded 
leaflets spread, tent-like, before some of them, damaged by 
wind or late frosts or insects' injury, begin to curl and drop, 
and as the leaves attain full size, they crowd, and this 
causes continual shedding. In early autumn the leaflets 
begin to be cast, the seven fingers gradually loosening from 
the end of the leaf -stalk; then comes a day when all of the 
foliage mass lets go, and one may wade knee deep under 
the tree in the dead leaves. The tree is still ugly from 
clinging leaf -stems and the slow breaking of the prickly 
husks that enclose the nuts. 

With all these faults, the horse-chestnut holds its popu- 
larity in the suburbs of great cities, for it lives despite 
smoke and soot. Bushey Park in London has five rows of 
these trees on either side of a wide avenue. When they are 
in bloom the fact is announced in the newspapers and all 
London turns out to see the sight. Paris uses the tree ex- 
tensively; nearly twenty thousand of them line her streets, 
and thrive despite the poverty of the soil. 

The American buckeyes are less sturdy in form and less 



THE HORSE-CHESTNUTS 



67 



showy in flower than the European species, but they 
have the horse-shoe print with the nails in it where the leaf- 
stalk meets the twig. The brown nuts, with the dull white 
patch which fastens them in the husk, justifies the name 
"buckeye." One nibble at the nut will prove to any one 
that, as a fruit, it is too bitter for even horses. Bitter, 
astringent bark is characteristic of the family. 

The Ohio Buckeye 

Ae. glabra, Willd. 

The Ohio buckeye has five yellow-green leaflets, smooth 
when full grown, pale, greenish yellow flowers, not at 
all conspicuous, and bitter nuts in spiny husks. The 
whole tree exhales a strong, disagreeable odor. The 
wood is peculiarly adapted to the making of artificial 
limbs. 

The great abundance of this little tree in the Ohio Valley 
accounts for Ohio being called the "Buckeye State." 



The Sweet Buckeye 

Ae. octandra, Marsh. 

The sweet buckeye is a handsome, large tree with green- 
ish yellow, tubular flowers^ and leaves of five slender, 
elliptical leaflets. Cattle will eat the nuts and paste 
made from them is preferred by bookbinders; it holds 
well, and book-loving insects will not attack it. These 
trees grow on mountain slopes of the Alleghanies from 
western Pennsylvania southward, and west to Iowa and 
Texas. 



68 TREES 

The California Buckeye 

Ae. californica, Nutt. 

The California buckeye spreads wide branches from a 
squat trunk, and clothes its sturdy twigs with unmistak- 
able horse-chestnut leaves and pyramids of white flowers. 
Sometimes these are tinted with rose, and the tree is very 
beautiful. The brown nuts are irregular in shape and en- 
closed in somewhat pear-shaped, two-valved husks. 

This western buckeye follows the borders of streams 
from the Sacramento Valley southward; they are largest 
north of San Francisco Bay, in the canyons of the Coast 
Range. 

Shrubby, red-flowered buckeyes, often seen in gardens 
and in the shrubbery borders of parks, are horticultural 
crosses between the European horse-chestnut and a 
shrubby, red-flowered native buckeye that occurs in the 
lower Mississippi Valley. 



THE LINDENS, OR BASSWOODS 

This tropical family, with about thirty-five genera, has 
a single tree genus, tilia, in North America. This genus 
has eighteen or twenty species, all told, with representa- 
tives in all temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, 
with the exception of Central America, Central Asia, and 
the Himalayas. 

Tilia wood is soft, pale-colored, light, of even grain, 
adaptable for wood-carving, sounding-boards of pianos, 
woodenwares of all kinds, and for the manufacture of 



THE LINDENS 69 

paper. The inner bark is tough and fibrous. It has been 
used since the human race was young, in the making of 
ropes, fish nets, and like necessities. It was a favorite 
tying material in nurseries and greenhouses until the more 
adaptable raffia came in to take its place. The bark of 
young trees is stripped in spring to make the shoes of the 
Russian peasantry. An infusion of basswood flowers has 
long been a home remedy for indigestion, nervousness, 
coughs, and hoarseness. Experiments in Germany have 
successfully extracted a table oil from the seed-balls. A 
nutritious paste resembling chocolate has been made from 
its nuts, which are delicious when fresh. In winter the 
buds, as well as the tiny nuts, stand between the lost trap- 
per and starvation. The flowers yield large quantities of 
nectar, and honey made near linden forests is unsurpassed 
in delicacy of flavor. 

About the time of Louis XIV, the French fashion arose of 
planting avenues to lindens, where horse-chestnuts had 
formerly been the favorite tree. The fashion spread to 
England of bordering with "lime trees" approaches to the 
homes of the gentry. "Pleached alleys" were made with 
these fast-growing trees that submitted so successfully to 
severe pruning and training. All sorts of grotesque figures 
were carved out of the growing lime trees in the days before 
topiary work in gardens submitted to the rules of land- 
scape art, and slower growing trees were chosen for such 
purposes. 

In cultivation, lindens have the virtues of swift growth, 
superb framework, clean, smooth bark, and late, profuse, 
beautiful and fragrant bloom, which is followed by interest- 
ing seed clusters, winged with a pale blade that lightens 
the foliage mass. One fault is the early dropping of the 



70 TREES 

leaves, which are usually marred by the wind soon after 
they reach mature size. Propagation is easy from cut- 
tings and from seed. 

The American Linden, or Basswood 

Tilia Americana, Linn. 

The American linden or basswood is a stately spreading 
tree reaching one hundred and twenty feet in height and a 
trunk diameter of four feet. The bark is brown, furrowed, 
and scaly, the branches gray and smooth, the twigs ruddy. 
The alternate leaves are obliquely heart-shaped, saw- 
toothed, with prominent veins that branch at the base, 
only on the side next to the petiole. (See illustration, 
page 86.) Occasionally the leaf blades are eight inches 
long. A dense shade is cast by a linden tree in midsum- 
mer. 

The blossoms, cream-white and clustered on pale green, 
leaf-like blades, open by hundreds in June and July, 
actually dripping with nectar, and illuminating the plat- 
forms of green leaves. A bird flying overhead looks down 
upon a tree covered with broad leaf blades overlapping 
like shingles on a roof. It must look underneath to see the 
flowers that delight us as we look up into the tree-top from 
our station on the ground. 

In midsummer the linden foliage becomes coarse and 
wind- whipped; the soft leaf -substance is attacked by 
insects that feed upon it; plant lice deface them with 
patches of honey-dew, and the sticky surfaces catch dust 
and soot. Riddled and torn, they drop in desultory 
fashion, their faded yellow not at all like the satisfying 
gold of beech and hickory leaves. 




See page SI 
THE BLACK WALNUT 

The young shoots are velvety and aromatic The pistillate flowers, m 

groups of 8 to 5, are on terminal spikes 




See page 37 
SHAGBARK HICKORY IS KNOWN AND NAMED BY ITS 
LOOSE, STRIPPING BARK 



THE LINDENS 71 

The flight of basswood seeds on their wing-like blades 
goes on throughout the winter. This alone would account 
for the fact that basswoods greatly outnumbered all other 
trees in the virgin forests of the Ohio Valley. The seeds 
are not the tree's sole dependence. Suckers grow up 
about the stump of a tree the lumberman has taken, or the 
lightning has stricken. Any twig is likely to strike root, 
and any cutting made from a root as well. 

The finest specimen I know grew from a walking-stick 
cut in the woods and thrust into the ground, by a mere 
chance, when the rambler reached home. It is the roof 
tree of a mansion, tall enough to waft its fragrance into the 
third-story windows, and to reach high above the chimney 
pots. 

The range of this tree extends from New Brunswick to 
Dakota and south to Virginia and Texas. Its wood is 
used for carriage bodies, furniture, cooperage, paper pulp, 
charcoal, and fuel. 

The Bee Tree, or White Basswood 

T. hetewphylla, Vent. 

The bee tree or white basswood of the South has nar- 
rower leaves than the species just described, and they 
vary in form and size; but always have linings of fine, 
silvery down, and the fruits are fuzzy. A wonderful, 
dazzling play of white, pale green, and deeper shades is 
seen when one of these trees flutters its leaf mass against a 
background, sombre with hemlocks and an undergrowth 
of rhododendron. The favorite haunts of this species arc 
the sides of mountain streams. Wild bees store their 
hoard of honey in the hollow trunks of old trees; and it is 



^m 



72 TREES 

the favorite holiday of many country folk to locate these 
natural hives and despoil them. In order to do this the 
tree must come down, and the revenge of the outraged 
swarm is sometimes a high price to pay for the stolen 
sweets. 

This linden is found from Ithaca, New York, southward 
along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama, 
and westward into Illinois and Tennessee. It is best and 
most abundant in the mountains of eastern Tennessee 
and North Carolina, at a considerable altitude. 

The Downy Basswood 

2\ pubescens, Ait. 

The downy basswood has leaves that are green on both 
sides, but its young shoots and leaf -linings are coated with 
rusty hairs. It is a miniature throughout of the American 
basswood, except that the blade that bears the flower- 
cluster is rounded at its base, while the others taper nar- 
rowly to the short stem. This species occurs on Long 
Island, and is sparingly seen along the coast from the 
Carolinas to Texas. 

The Common Lime 

T. vulgaris 

"Unter den Linden," the famous avenue in Berlin, is 
planted with the small-leaved common lime of Europe, be- 
side which the American basswood is a coarse-looking tree. 
Very disappointing docked trees they are, along this 
thoroughfare; for city streets are never places where a tree 
can reach its best estate. In the rural sections of France 



THE LINDENS 73 

and Germany this tree reaches noble stature and great 
age. 

Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, had his name from a fine 
linden tree, when his peasant father rose to the dignity of a 
surname. "Linn" is the Swedish word for linden. 
" Carl Linne," meaning " Charles of the linden tree," it was 
at first when he played as a boy in the shadow of its great 
branches. "Carolus Linnaeus" he became when he was 
appointed professor of the university at Upsala, and 
through all time since. 

Gerarde discourses quaintly upon the linden tree in his 
"Grete Herball" published in England in 1597. "The 
male tree," he says, "is to me unknown." We smile at 
his notion that there are male and female trees in this 
family, but we wonder at the accuracy of observation 
evinced by one who lived and wrote before the science of 
botany had any existence. Evidently Master Gerarde 
had a good pair of eyes, and he has well expressed the 
things he saw. I quote a paragraph : 

"The female line, or linden tree waxeth very great and 
thicke, spreading forth its branches wide and fare abroad, 
being a tree which yieldeth a most pleasant shadow, under 
and within whose boughs may be made brave summer 
houses and banqueting arbors, because the more that it is 
surcharged with weight of timber and such like, the better 
it doth flourish. The bark is brownish, very smooth and 
plaine on the outside, but that which is next to the timber 
is white, moist and tough, serving very well for ropes, 
trases and halters. The timber is whitish, plaine, and 
without knots; yea, very soft and gentle in the cutting and 
handling. The leaves are smooth, greene, shining and 
large, somewhat snipt or toothed about the edges: the 
floures are little, whitish, of a good savour, and very many 



74 



TREES 



in number; growing clustered together from out of the 
middle of the leaf: out of which proceedeth a small whitish 
long narrow leaf e : after the floures succeed cornered sharp 
pointed nuts, of the bignesse of hasell nuts. This tree 
seemeth to be a kinde of elme, and the people of Essex 
(whereas great plenty groweth by the waysides) do call it 
broad-leafed elme." 



PART III 

THE WATER-LOVING TREES 

The Poplars — The Willows — The Hornbeams — The 
Birches — The Alders — The Sycamores, or But- 
tonwoods — The Gum Trees — The Osage Orange 



THE POPLARS 

The poplars are plebeian trees, but they have a place to 
nil and they fill it with credit. They are the hardy, rude 
pioneers that go before and prepare the way for nobler 
trees. Let a fire sweep a path through the forest, and the 
poplar is likely to be the first tree to fill the breach. The 
trees produce abundant seed, very much like that of 
willows, and the wind sows it far and wide. The young 
trees love the sun, and serve as nurse trees to more valu- 
able hardwoods and conifers, that must have shade until 
they become established. By the time the more valuable 
species are able to take care of themselves, the poplars 
have come to maturity and disappeared, for they are quick- 
growing, short-lived trees. The wind plays havoc with 
their brittle branches. Seldom has a good-sized poplar 
tree any claim to beauty. 

Tenacity of life, if not of fibre, belongs to the poplar 
tribe. Twigs strike root and the roots send up suckers 
from underground; cutting off these suckers only en- 

75 



76 TREES 

courages them to fresh activity. The only way to get rid 
of the young growth that springs up about an old tree is to 
use the grubbing-hoe thoroughly and patiently. 

Poplar blossoms, borne in catkins, show the close re- 
lationship between this genus and the willows. The 
leaves, however, are always broad and leathery, and set on 
long stems. Twenty-five species are known, twelve of 
which are American. 

The White Poplar 

Populus alba, Linn. 

The white poplar is sometimes called the silver-leaved 
poplar because its dark, glossy leaves are lined with cot- 
tony nap. This sprightly contrast of light and shade in 
the foliage is most unusual, and very attractive in early 
spring; but the leaf -linings collect soot and dust, and this 
they carry to the end of the season — a fact which should 
not be forgotten by those considering the advisability of 
planting this tree in a city where much soft coal is 
burned. 

The white bark of this European poplar reminds us of 
the birch family, though it has no silky fringe shedding 
from the surface. The leaves often imitate the maple in 
the divisions of their margins, justifying the name "maple- 
leaved poplar." 

As a dooryard tree this species has a wider popularity 
than it deserves. The wind breaks the brittle branches, 
and when these accidents threaten its life, the tree sends up 
suckers which form a grove about the parent trunk, and 
defy all efforts to eradicate them, until the grubbing-hoe 
and axe have been resorted to. 



THE POPLARS 77 

Th© Black Poplar 

P. nigra, Linn. 

The Lombardy poplar, a variety of the black poplar of 
Europe, is a familiar tree figure along roadsides, and often 
marks boundary lines between farms. Each tree is an 
exclamation point, its branches short and numerous, 
rising toward the zenith. The roundish leaves that twinkle 
on these aspiring branches make the tree pretty and in- 
teresting when young — just the thing to accent a group of 
round-headed trees in a park. But not many years are 
attained before the top becomes choked with the multitude 
of its branches. The tree cannot shed this dead wood and 
the beauty of its youth is departed. The trunk grows 
coarse, warty, and buttressed at the base. Suckers are 
thrown up from the roots. There is little left to challenge 
admiration. Since the tree gives practically no shade, we 
must believe that the first planters were attracted by its 
odd shape and its readiness to grow, rather than by any 
belief in its fitness for avenue and highway planting. 

The Cottonwood 

P. deltoidea, Marsh. 

The cottonwood justifies its existence, if ever a tree did. 
On our Western plains, where the watercourses are slug- 
gish and few and often run dry in midsummer, few trees 
grow; and the settler and traveler is grateful for the cotton- 
woods. The pioneer on the Western prairie planted it for 
shade and for wind-breaks about his first home. Many 
of these trees attain great age and in protected situations 



78 TREES 

are magnificent though unsymmetrical trees, shaking out 
each spring a new head of bright green, glossy foliage, each 
leaf responsive to the lightest breeze. 

"Necklace-bearing poplar," it has been called, from 
the fact that children find pleasure in stringing for beads 
the green, half -grown pods containing the minute seeds. 
They also delight in gathering the long, red caterpillar- 
like catkins of the staminate flowers, the pollen bearers, 
from the sterile trees. A fertile tree is sometimes counted 
a nuisance in a dooryard because its pods set free a great 
mass of cotton that collects in window screens, to the 
annoyance of housewives. But this seed time is soon over. 

Just these merits of quick growth, prettiness, and te- 
nacity of life, belong to the Carolina Poplar, a variety of 
native cottonwood that lines the streets of the typical 
suburban tract opened near any American city. The 
leaves are large and shine with a varnish which protects 
them from dust and smoke. But the wind breaks the 
branches, destroys the symmetry of the tree's head, and in 
a few years the suburban community takes on a cheap and 
ugly look. The wise promoter will alternate slow-growing 
maples and elms with the poplars so that these permanent 
trees will be ready to take their places in a few years. 

The Aspen 

P. tremuloides, Michx. 

The trembling aspen, or quaking asp, is the prettiest tree 
of all the poplar tribe. Its bark is gray and smooth, often 
greenish and nearly white. An aspen copse is one of the 
loveliest things in the spring landscape. In March the 
bare, angular limbs show green under their bark, one of the 



THE POPLARS 79 

first prophecies of spring; then the buds cast their brown 
scales and fuzzy gray catkins are revealed. There are few- 
shades of olive and rose, few textures of silk and velvet 
that are not duplicated as the catkins lengthen and dance 
like chenille fringe from every twig. With the flowers, the 
new leaves open; each blade limp, silky, as it unrolls, more 
like the finest white flannel than anything else. (See illus- 
trations, pages 86-87.) Soon the leaves shed all of this hairy, 
protective coat, passing through various tones of pink and 
silver on their way to their lustrous, bright green maturity. 
Their stems are flattened in a plane at right angles with the 
blade. Being long and pliant besides, they catch the breeze 
on blade or stem, and so the foliage is never still on the 
quietest of summer days. "Popple" leaves twinkle and 
dance and catch the sunlight like ripples on the surface of a 
stream, while the foliage of oaks and other trees near by 
may be practically motionless. 

The Balsam Poplar 

P. balsamifera, Linn. 

The balsam poplar is the balm of Gilead of the early 
settlers, the Tacamahac of the Northern Indians. They 
squeezed the fragrant wax from the winter buds and used it 
to seal up the seams in their birch-bark canoes. The bees 
taught the Indian the uses of this glutinous secretion, 
which the tree used to seal the bud-scales and thus keep out 
water. When growth starts with the stirring of the sap, 
this wax softens; then the bees collect and store it against a 
day of need. Whether their homes be hollow trees or patent 
hives, weather-cracks are carefully sealed up with this water- 
proof gum, which the bee-keeper knows as "propolis." 



80 TREES 

Forests of balm of Gilead cover much of the vast British 
possessions north of the United States, and reach to the 
ultimate islands of the Aleutian group. They dip down 
into the states as far as Nebraska and Nevada. In culti- 
vation, the species has proved itself a tree of excellent 
habit, easily propagated and transplanted, and of rapid 
growth. It has all the good points of the Carolina poplar 
and lacks its besetting sin of becoming so soon an unsightly 

cripple. 

Narrow-leaved Cottonwood 

P. angusiifolia, James. 

Lance-leaved Cottonwood 

P. acuminata, Rydb. 

Mexican Cottonwood 

P. Mexicana, Wesm. 

These three cottonwoods line the banks of mountain 
streams at high elevations in the great system of mountain 
chains that stretch from British Columbia southward. 
The dancing foliage, bright green in summer, golden in 
autumn, lends a charming color note to the dun stretches 
of arid plain and the sombre green of pine forests. These 
trees furnish the settler fuel, shade, and wind-breaks while 
he is converting his "homestead" into a home. 

Black Cottonwood 

P. trichocarpa, Hook. 

Farther west, covering the mountain slopes from Alaska 
to Mexico, and liking even better the moist, rich low- 
lands, is the black cottonwood, the giant of the genus, 



THE POPLARS 81 

reaching two hundred feet in height, and seven to eight feet 
in trunk diameter. Tall and stately, it lifts its broad 
rounded crown upon heavy upright limbs. In the Yo- 
semite the dark, rich green of these poplar groves along the 
Merced River makes a rich, velvet margin, glorious when it 
turns to gold in autumn. 

Swamp Cottonwood 
P. heterophylla, Linn. 

The swamp cottonwood of the South has leaves of varia- 
ble but distinctly poplar form, always large, broadly ovate, 
with slim round petioles. The white down of the un- 
folding leaves often persists into midsummer. On ac- 
count of the fluttering leaves the trees were called, by the 
early Acadians, " Langues defemmes" a mild calumny trace- 
able to the herbalist, Gerarde, who compares them to 
"women's tongues, which seldom cease wagging." 

The wood of poplars, soft, weak, and of slight value for 
fuel or lumber, has within two decades come into a position 
of great economic importance. Wood pulp is made of it, 
and out of wood pulp a thousand articles, from toys to 
wheels of locomotives, are made. A state forester de- 
clared: "If I could replace the maples in the state forest by 
poplars to-day, I would do it gladly. It would be worth 
thousands of dollars to the state." 



THE WILLOWS 

Along the watercourses the willow family finds its most 
congenial habitat. It is a very large family, numbering 
more than one hundred and seventy species, which are, 



82 TREES 

however, mostly shrubs rather than trees. America has 
seventy species of willows, and new forms are constantly 
being discovered, which are the results of the crossing of 
closely related species. These "natural hybrids" have 
greatly confused the botany of the willow family. 

Not more than half a dozen American willows ever at- 
tain the height of good-sized trees, and many of these are 
more commonly found in the tangled shrubbery of river 
banks, or covering long semi-arid strips of ground far to 
the north, or on mountain sides where their growth is 
stunted. Little trees, six inches high, bearing the char- 
acteristic catkins and narrow leaves of the willow, are 
found on the arctic tundras. 

The wood of willows is pale in color, soft in texture, and 
of very little use as lumber or fuel, except in localities where 
trees are scarce. The Indian depended upon the inner 
bark of the withy willow for material for his fish nets and 
lines, and farmers in the pioneer days took the tough, supple 
stems, when spring made the sap run freely, for the binding 
together of the rails of their fences. Knotted tight and 
seasoned, these twigs hardened and lasted for years. 

In Europe the white willow has long been used for the 
making of wooden shoes, artificial limbs, and carriage 
bodies. Its wood makes the finest charcoal for gunpowder. 
Willow wares, such as baskets and wicker furniture, are as 
old as civilization, and that in its primitive stages. It is 
a common sight in Europe to see groves of trees from 
which the long twigs have been taken yearly for these uses. 
The stumps are called "pollards" and the trees "pollarded 
willows" whose discouraging task has been to grow a 
yearly crop of withes for the basket-makers; yet each 
spring finds them bristling with the new growth. 



THE WILLOWS 83 

The hosts of Csesar invading England in the First 
Century found the Britons defending themselves behind 
willow- woven shields, and living in huts of wattled willows, 
smeared with mud. From that time to the present the 
uses of these long shoots have multiplied. 

The roots of willows are fibrous and tough as the shoots. 
For this reason they serve a useful purpose in binding the 
banks of streams, especially where these are liable to flood. 
Nature seems to have designed these trees for just this 
purpose, for a twig lying upon the ground strikes root at 
every joint if the soil it falls on is sufficiently moist. The 
wind breaks off twigs and the water carries them down 
stream where they lodge on banks and sand bars, and these 
are soon covered with billows of green. 

Willows start growth early in spring, putting out their 
catkins, the two sexes on different trees, before the opening 
of the leaves. Before the foliage is full grown, the light 
seeds, each a minute speck, floats away in a wisp of silky 
down. Its vitality lasts but a day, so it must fall on wet 
ground at once in order to grow. But the willow family is 
quite independent of its seeds in the matter of propaga- 
tion. Chop the roots and twigs into bits and each will 
grow. Chop a young willow tree into sticks and fence 
posts and each one, if it is stuck green into the ground, 
covers itself with ajhead of leafy twigs before the season is 
over. 

Weeping Willow 

Salix Babylonica 

The weeping willow, much planted in cemeteries and 
parks, came originally from Asia and is remarkable for its 



84 TREES 

narrow leaves that seem fairly to drip from the pendulous 
twigs. (See illustration, page 55.) The foliage has a 
wonderful lightness and cheerfulness of expression, despite 
its weeping habit. 

The Pussy Willow 

S. discolor, Muehl. 

The pussy willow is the familiar bog willow, whose gray, 
silky catkins appear in earliest spring. A walk in the 
woods in late February often brings us the charming sur- 
prise of a meeting with this little tree, just when its gray 
pussies are pushing out from their brown scales. We cut 
the twigs and bring them home and watch the wonderful 
color changes that mark the full development of the 
flowers. Turning them in the light, one sees under the 
sheen of silky hairs the varied and evanescent hues that glow 
in a Hungarian opal. In midsummer a pussy willow tree is 
lost among the shrubby growth in any woods. It is only 
because it leads the procession of the spring flowers that 
every one knows and loves it. (See illustrations, pages 86-87.) 



THE HORNBEAMS 

Two genera of little trees in the same family with the 
birches are frequently met in the woods, often modestly 
hiding under the larger trees. One is the solitary repre- 
sentative of its genus: the other has a sister species. 

The hornbeams grow very slowly and their wood is close- 
grained, heavy, and hard. In flexibility, strength, and 
ability to stand strain, it rivals steel. Before metals so 



THE HORNBEAMS 85 

generally became competitors of woods in construction 
work, hornbeam was the only wood for rake teeth, levers, 
mallets, and especially for the beams of ox yokes. It out- 
wore the stoutest oak, the toughest elm. Springiness 
adapted it for fork handles and the like. Bowls and dishes 
of hornbeam lasted forever, and would never leak nor 
crack. "Iron wood" is the name used wherever the wood 
was worked. 

American Hornbeam 

Carpinus Carolinianum, Walt. 

The American hornbeam has bluish gray bark, very fine 
in texture, from which the name "blue beech," is common 
in some localities. "Water beech" points out the tree's 
preference for rich swamp land. 

The trunk and limbs are strangely swollen, sometimes 
like a fluted column, oftener irregularly, the swelling 
under the bark suggesting the muscular development of a 
gymnast's arm. 

In favorable places the hornbeams grow into regular 
oval heads, their branches dividing into a multitude of 
wiry, supple twigs. Crowded under oaks and other forest 
growth, they crouch and writhe; and their heads flatten 
into tangled masses of foliage. 

The delicate leaves, strong-ribbed, oval, pointed, turn to 
red and orange in autumn. (See illustration, page 87.) 
The paired nutlets are provided with a parachute each, so 
that the wind can sow them broadcast. This wing is leafy 
in texture, shaped like a maple leaf, and curved into the 
shape of a boat. After they have broken apart, the nut- 
lets hang by threads, tough as hornbeam fibres always are. 



86 TREES 

At last, away they sail, to start new trees if they fall in 
moist soil. 

The European hornbeam was a favorite tree for making 
the "pleached alleys," of which old-world garden-lovers 
were proud. A row of trees on each side of a promenade 
were pruned and trained to cover an arching framework, 
and to interlace their supple branches so that at length no 
other framework was needed, and one walked through a 
tunnel of green so closely interlaced as to make walls and 
roof that shut out light and wind and rain ! Hedges, 
fences, and many fancies of the gardener were worked out 
with this hornbeam, so willingly did it lend itself to cutting 
and moulding into curious forms. 



Hop Hornbeam 

Ostrya Virginiana, Willd. 

The hop hornbeam has habits like the other iron wood and 
an equal reputation for the hardness of its wood. The 
tree, however, wears scaly, shaggy brown bark, suggesting 
in its manner of scaling off the shagbark hickory. Its 
nutlets are packed separate in loose papery bags, and to- 
gether form a loose, cone-like cluster, like the fruit of a 
hop vine. The wind scatters these buoyant little bags, 
that travel far. 

This tree often twists in growing, and the trunk shows 
spiral furrows. "Hard-tack," "beetle- wood," "lever- 
wood " — all take us back to the pioneer who put this wood 
to such good uses, and who was glad to have these little 
trees growing in his woodlot. In hickories, even, he had 
not the equal of them for strength and hardness. 




See page 85 
THE AMERICAN HORNBEAM 
A fruiting branch showing the thin beech-like leaves and the seeds on 
their leafy triangular bracts 



THE BIRCHES 87 

Knowlton's Ironwood 

0. Knowltoni, Co v. 

Knowlton's ironwood is found nowhere but in a thick 
grove on the southern slope of the canyon of the Colorado 
in Arizona, about seventy miles north of Flagstaff. Here 
these trees are numerous, crouching under oaks, their 
twisted branches ending in drooping twigs, bearing the 
characteristic pale green hops in autumn, small oval leaves, 
and the catkin flowers in spring. Such a restricted dis- 
tribution for a distinct species of trees is unmatched in the 
annals of botany. 



THE BIRCHES 

Grace and gentility of appearance are attributes of this 
most interesting, attractive, and valuable family of trees. 
Shabby gentility, one may insist, thinking of the untidy, 
frayed-out edges that adorn the silky outer bark of almost 
every birch tree in the woods. (See illustration, page 102.) 
Not one of them, however, but lends a note of cheerfulness 
to the landscape. There is beauty and daintiness in leaf, 
flower, and winged seed, and despite the inferiority of most 
birch wood, the history of the family is a long story of use- 
fulness to the human race. 

About thirty species of birches grow in the Northern 
Hemisphere, ten of them are North American. The white 
birch of Europe extends across the northern half of Asia, 
and is cultivated in delicate cut-leaved and weeping forms, 
as a lawn and park tree in this country. 



88 TREES 

The Canoe Birch 

Betula papyrifera, Marsh. 

The canoe birch or paper birch is the noblest member of 
the family. (See cover of book.) Ernest Thompson 
Seton calls it "The White Queen of the Woods — the 
source of food, drink, transport, and lodging to those who 
dwell in the forest — the most bountiful provider of all the 
trees." Then he enumerates the sweet syrup yielded by 
its sap; the meal made by drying and grinding the inner 
bark; the buds and catkins upon which the partridge feeds; 
and the outer bark, which is its best gift to primitive 
man. 

"The broad sheets of this vegetable rawhide, ripped off 
when the weather is warm, and especially when the sap is 
moving, are tough, light, strong, pliant, absolutely water- 
proof, almost imperishable in the weather; free from in- 
sects, assailable only by fire. It roofs the settler's shack 
and the forest Indian's wigwam. It supplies cups, pails, 
pots, pans, spoons, boxes; under its protecting power the 
matches are safe and dry; split very thin, as is easily done, 
it is the writing paper of the woods, flat, light, smooth, 
waterproof, tinted, and scented; but the crowning glory of 
the birch is this — it furnishes the indispensable substance 
for the bark canoe, whose making is the highest industrial 
exploit of the Indian life." 

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from our northern 
tier of states to the arctic seas, woodsmen, red and white, 
have found this white-barked tree ready to their hand, 
their sure defense against death by cold and by starvation. 
The weather is never so wet but that shreds of birch bark 



THE BIRCHES 89 

burn merrily to start a campfire, and the timber of the 
trunk burns readily green or dry. 



The White Birch 

B. populifolia, Marsh. 

The white birch is a small, short-lived tree that grows in 
swampy ground, its bark chalky white or grayish, with 
triangular rough patches of black, where branches are or 
have been. (The canoe birch has a clean bole, chalky 
white, with none of these ugly black patches.) 

A vagabond tree it is, with thin pointed leaves and long 
pencil-like catkins and seed cones. The chief contributions 
of the poplar-leaved birch to the well-being of men are that 
it clothes with beauty the most uniniviting situations, and 
that it comes again, after fire or other general slaughter, 
promptly and abundantly, from stump and scattered seed. 



The Yellow Birch 

B. lutea, Michx. 

The yellow birch shows gleams of yellow under every rent 
in its gray, silky, frayed-out surface. Here is a timber tree 
of considerable size and value : its hard wood furnishes the 
frames of northern sledges; the knots and burs make good 
mallets; the curiously knotted roots show a curly grain, 
valuable to the cabinet-maker. From New England to 
Minnesota, and south along the Appalachian range, this 
tree is found, always telling its name by the color of its 
shaggy bark. 



90 TREES 

The Red Birch 

B. nigra, Linn. 

Red birch or river birch wears its name in its chocolate- 
hued or terra-cotta bark, whose scaly surface flaunts a 
series of tattered fringes to the very twig ends. Tall and 
graceful fountains of living green, these birches lean over 
stream borders from Minnesota and New York to the Gulf 
of Mexico, and reach westward to the foothills of the 
Rockies. Close-grained and strong, the pale brown wood 
is used for furniture, shoe lasts, and a multitude of wooden- 
wares. In the bayous of the lower Mississippi, where its 
roots and the base of the trunk are inundated for half the 
year, the tree reaches its greatest size. The cones stand 
erect and shed their heart-shaped, winged seeds in June — 
an exception to the autumn-fruiting of all other birches. 

The Cherry Birch 

B. lenta, Linn. 

The cherry birch has dark, irregularly checked bark like 
the wild cherry, but the oval, pointed leaf, the catkin 
flowers, and the cone fruits of its family. Birch beer is 
made of its aromatic sap and wintergreen oil is extracted 
from the leaves. Indians shred the inner bark and dry it in 
the spring when it is rich in starch and sugar. These 
shreds, like vermicelli, are boiled with fish and form a 
nourishing dish. The wood is heavy, hard, and close- 
grained, valuable for the manufacture of furniture and 
implements, especially wheel hubs, and for fuel. It is 
one of the handsomest, most symmetrical, and most lux- 



THE ALDERS 91 

uriant of all our birch trees, and a worthy addition to any 
park. 

THE ALDERS 

Closely related to the hornbeams and birches is a genus 
of small water-loving trees that grow rapidly and serve 
definite, special uses in the Old and New World. The 
genus alnus includes twenty species, nine of which grow in 
North America; six of these reach the height of trees. 

The Black Alder 

Alnus glutinosa, Gaertn. 

Of the alders, the black alders of Europe is the largest 
and most important timber tree. Its range includes west- 
ern Asia and northern Africa. It was introduced success- 
fully into our Northeastern states in colonial times and has 
become naturalized in many localities. These trees some- 
times reach seventy feet in height and a trunk diameter 
of three feet. Their dark green foliage, glutinous when 
the leaves unfold in the spring, ranks these giant alders 
among the beautiful and picturesque trees. 

The lumberman esteems alder wood only for special 
purposes. It grows in water and its wood resists decay bet- 
ter than any other kind when saturated through indefinite 
periods. In the old days it was the wood for the boat- 
builder. The piles of the Rial to in Venice and along the 
canals of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities are of black 
alder. Water pipes and troughs, pumps, barrel staves, 
kneading troughs, sabots and clogs were made of alder 
wood. The bark and cones are rich in tannin and a yellow 



92 TREES 

dye used in making ink. Willow and alder make the best 
charcoal for gunpowder. Warty excrescences on old 
trees and twisted roots furnished the inlayer with small 
but beautifully veined and very hard pieces, beautiful 
in veneer work when polished. In America the black 
alder is often met in horticultural varieties. The daintiest 
are the cut-leaved forms, of which imperialis, with leaves 
fingered like a white oak, is a good example. 

One of the best uses to which alders are put in Europe 
is planting in hedges along borders of streams, where their 
closely interlacing roots hold the banks from crumbling 
and keep the current clear in midstream. No English 
landscape is more beautiful than one through which a little 
river winds, its banks and the boggy spots tributary to it 
softened by billows of living green. "He who would see 
the alder in perfection must follow the banks of the Mole 
and Surrey through the sweet vales of Dorking and Wickle- 
ham." 

Seaside Alder 

A. maritima, Nutt. 

The seaside alder shares with the witch hazel the pe- 
culiar distinction of bearing its flowers and ripening its 
fruit simultaneously in the fall of the year. The alder 
comes first, hanging out its golden catkins in clusters on 
the ends of the season's shoots in August and September. 
Nothing is left of them when the witch hazel scatters its 
dainty stars along the twigs in October and November. 
The seaside alder follows stream borders near but not 
actually on the seacoast, through eastern Delaware and 
Maryland, but ranges comfortably on drier soil as far west 
as Oklahoma and is hardy in gardens and parks as far 



THE SYCAMORES 93 

north as Boston, where it blooms profusely and is much 
admired for both flowers and glossy foliage through the 
late summer. 

Oregon Alder 

A. Oregona, Nutt. 

The Oregon or red alder reaches eighty feet in height and 
its trunk may exceed three feet in diameter. This Western 
tree exceeds the Old World alder in size. The smooth, 
pale-gray bark reminds us of the beech and sets this tree 
apart from the white alder whose bark is brown and deeply 
furrowed. The flowers and cone fruits are very large. 
The ovate leaves are cut-toothed and often lobed. This is 
the alder of the West Coast, largest where it comes down 
to the sea near the shores of Puget Sound, but climbing the 
mountains and canyon sides wherever there is water, from 
Sitka to Santa Barbara. The reddish brown wood is 
light, easily worked, and beautifully satiny when polished. 
In Washington and Oregon it is largely used in the manu- 
facture of furniture. The Indian dug-outs are made of the 
butts of large trees. 



THE SYCAMORES, OR BUTTONWOODS 

The Buttonwood 

Platanus occidentalism Linn. 

Our eastern buttonwood is a tree to which, in America, 
we supply the name sycamore. Its European counter- 
part is the plane tree of the Old World. It is one of the 
easiest trees to recognize, for its most prominent trait is 



94 TREES 

fairly shouted at us from a distance, whenever one of these 
trees comes within the range of our vision. The smooth 
bark that covers the branches is thin, very brittle, and has 
the habit of flaking off in irregular plates, leaving white 
patches under these plates that contrast sharply with the 
dingy olive of the unshed areas. On old trunks the bark is 
reddish brown and breaks into small, irregular plates; but 
above, and out among the branches, the tree looks down- 
right untidy, and as though it had been splashed with 
whitewash by some careless painter. (See illustrations, 
pages 102-103.) 

White birches grow in copses in low ground, a whole 
regiment of their white stems slanting upward. But the 
ghostly sycamore is apt to stand alone along the river- 
courses, scattered among other water-loving trees. The 
tree is wayward in its branching habit, its twigs irregular 
and angular. When the leaves are gone, it is a distressed- 
looking object, dangling its seed-balls in the wind until the 
central, bony cob is bare, the seeds having all sailed away 
on their hairy parachutes. 

In the warmer South our buttonwood is a stalwart, 
large-limbed tree of colossal trunk, that shelters oaks and 
maples under its protecting arms. And there are some 
large specimens on Long Island. 

The buttonwood leaf in a general way resembles a maple's, 
being as broad as long, with three main lobes at the top. 
The leaf stem forms a tent over the bud formed in summer 
and containing the leafy shoot of the next year. The leaf 
scar, therefore, is a circle and the leaf base a hollow 
cone. At first a sheathing stipule, like a little leafy 
ruffle, grows at the base of each leaf, but this is shed 
before midsummer. 



THE GUM TREES 



95 



Oriental Plane 

P. Orientalis, Linn. 

The oriental plane is almost as familiar a tree as our 
native species, for it is planted as a street tree in every city 
and village, and is a favorite shade and lawn tree besides. 
The city of Washington has set the example and so has 
Philadelphia. One third of the street trees of Paris are 
plane trees. 

The chief merits of this tree immigrant are its perfect 
hardiness, its fine, symmetrical, compact pyramid, its 
freedom from injury by smoke and dust, and its rapid 
growth in the poor soil of the parkings of city and village. 
In leaf and fruit and bark-shedding habit, it is easily 
recognized as a sycamore, though in this species more than 
one ball dangles from each stem. 

The exactions of city life limit the number of tree species 
that will do well. Our native sycamore patiently endures 
the foul breath of factory chimneys, and helps, in the small- 
est, downtown city parks, to make green oases in 
burning deserts of brick and stone pavements. But it is 
subject to the ravages of insect and fungous enemies to a 
greater extent than the oriental species. 



THE GUM TREES 



Southern people talk more about "gum trees" than 
people in the North. Two of our three native species of 
Nyssa belong solely to southern swamps, and the third, 
which comes north to Canada, is oftener called by other 



96 TREES 

names. All these trees are picturesque, with twiggy, con- 
torted branches; tough, cross-grained wood; alternate, 
simple, leathery, but deciduous leaves, beautiful at all 
seasons; minute flowers and fleshy, berry-like fruits. 

The Sour, or Black, Gum 

Nyssa sylvatica> Marsh. 

The sour or black gum of the South has a wide range, 
being hardy to southern Ontario and Maine. To the New 
Englander this is the "pepperidge"; the Indians called 
it "tupelo"; but the woodsman, North and South, calls it 
the gum tree, as a rule. "Black gum" refers to its dark 
gray, rough bark, which is broken into many-sided plates. 
By this, it is easily distinguished from the "red gum" 
or liquidamber, which grows in the same situations, but is 
not related to it . " Sour gum ' ' refers to the acid, blue-black 
berries, one to three in a cluster, ripe in October. 

We shall know this tree by its tall, slender trunk, clothed 
with short, ridged, full-twigged, horizontal branches. With 
no claim to symmetry, the black gum is a striking and 
picturesque figure in winter. It is beautiful in summer, 
covered with the dark polished leaves, two to four 
inches long. In autumn patches of red appear as the 
leaves begin to drop. This is the tupelo's signal that 
winter is coming. Soon the tree is a pillar of fire against 
yellowing ashes and hickories. The reds of the swamp 
maple and scarlet oak are brighter, but no tree has a richer 
color than this one. A spray brought in to decorate the 
mantelpiece lasts till Christmas holly displaces it. The 
leaves, being leathery, do not curl and dry, as do thin 
maple leaves, in the warm air of the house. 



THE GUM TREES 



97 



The Cotton Gum 

N. aquatica, Marsh. 

The cotton gum is draped in cottony white down as the 
new shoots start and the leaves unfold in spring. In mid- 
summer this down persists in the leaf -linings, lightening the 
dark green of the tree-tops. The dark blue fruits of this 
species have no culinary value. The wood is used for 
crating material. The tree reaches its maximum height — 
one hundred feet — in the cypress swamps of Louisiana 
and Texas, its abundant, corky roots adapting it to its 
habitat. 



The Sweet Gum 

Liquidamber styraciflua, Linn. 

The sweet gum is a tall tree with a straight trunk, four to 
five feet in diameter, with slender branches covered with 
corky bark thrown out in wing-like ridges. At first the 
head is regular and pyramidal, but in old age it becomes 
irregularly oblong and comparatively narrow. The bark 
is reddish brown, deeply furrowed between rough scaly 
plates, marked by hard, warty excrescences. 

The leaves are lobed like a maple's, but more regularly, 
so as to form a five-pointed star. Brilliant green in sum- 
mer, they become streaked with crimson and yellow. 
Wherever these gum trees grow, the autumn landscape is 
painted with the changeful splendor of the most gorgeous 
sunset. "The tree is not a flame, it is a conflagration .'" 
Often along a country road the rail fence is hidden by an 
undergrowth of young gum trees. Their polished star 



98 TREES 

leaves may pass from green into dull crimsons and then into 
lilacs and so to brown, or they may flame into scarlets and 
orange instead. Always, the foliage of the sweet gum falls 
before it loses its wonderful colors. 

The flowers of the sweet gum are knobby little bunches; 
the swinging balls covered with curving horns contain 
the winged seeds, small but shaped like the key of the 
maple. One recognizes the gum tree in winter by these 
swinging seed-balls, an inch in diameter, like the balls of the 
buttonwood, except that those are smooth. (See illustra- 
tions, pages 102-103.) The best distinguishing mark of sweet 
gums in winter are the corky ridges on the branches, and 
the star-shaped leaves under the trees. Sweet gum sap is 
resinous and fragrant. Chip through the bark, and an 
aromatic gum soon accumulates in the wound. The far- 
ther South one goes, the more copious is the exudation. In 
Mexico a Spanish explorer described, in 1651, "large trees 
that exude a gum like liquid amber." This is the " copalm 
balm" gathered and shipped each year to Europe from 
New Orleans and from Mexican ports. The fragrant 
gum, storax or styrax, derived from forests of the oriental 
sweet gum in Asia Minor, is used as incense in temples of 
various oriental religions. It blends with frankincense and 
myrrh in the censers of Greek and Roman Catholic 
churches. It is used in medicines also, and as a dry gum 
is the standard glove perfume in France. 

Beautiful and interesting in every stage of growth, our 
native sweet gums are planted largely in the parks of 
Europe and are earning recognition at home, through the 
efforts of tree-lovers who would make the most of native 
species in ornamental planting. 

The name, gum tree, is applied to our tupelos, and to the 



THE OSAGE ORANGE 



99 



great tribe of Australian eucalyptus trees, now largely 
planted in the Southwest. 



The Osage Orange 

Toxylon pomiferum, Raff. 

Related to figs and mulberries, but solitary in the genus 
toxylon, is the osage orange, a handsome round-headed 
tree, native of eastern North America, whose fleshy roots 
and milky, bitter, rubbery sap reveal its family connec- 
tions with the tropical rubber plants. (See illustration, 
page 119.) The fruits are great yellow-green globes, four to 
five inches in diameter, covered on the outside by crowded, 
one-seeded berries. This compound fruit reveals the tree's 
relationship to both figs and mulberries. 

The aborigines, especially of the Osage tribe, in the 
middle Mississippi Valley, cherished these trees for their 
orange-yellow wood, which is hard, heavy, flexible, and 
strong — the best bow-wood to be found east of the Rocky 
Mountains. When the settlers came the sharp thorns 
with which the branches are effectually armed appealed 
strongly to the busy farmers and the tree was widely 
planted for hedges. Nurserymen produced them by 
thousands, from cuttings of root and branch. These trees 
made rapid growth and seemed most promising as a solu- 
tion of the fencing problem, but they did not prove hardy 
in Iowa and neighboring states. Even now remnants of 
those old winter-killed hedges may be found on farm 
boundaries, individual trees having been able to survive. 

The native osage orange timber is about all gone, for the 
rich bottom lands where it once grew most abundantly in 
Oklahoma and Texas have been converted into farm land. 



100 



TREES 



However, the growing of osage orange timber for posts is 
on the increase. Systematically maintained, plantations 
pay well. The wood is exceptionally durable in soil. 
Good prices are paid for posts in local markets. Twenty- 
five posts can be grown to the rod in rows of a plantation; 
they grow rapidly and send up new shoots from the roots. 

The brilliant, leathery leaves and conspicuous green 
fruits make this native bow-wood a very striking lawn 
tree. It holds its foliage well into the autumn and turns at 
length into a mass of gold. It harbors few insects, has 
handsome bark, and is altogether a distinguished, foreign- 
looking tree. 

Experiments of feeding osage orange leaves to silkworms 
have been successfully made at different times, but no- 
where in America has silk culture succeeded. Since the 
white mulberry is hardy here and its foliage is the basis of 
the silk-growing industry in the Old World, it is futile to 
look for substitutes in the osage orange or any other tree. 



PART IV 

TREES WITH SHOWY FLOWERS AND FRUITS 

The Magnolias — The Dogwoods — The Viburnums 
The Mountain Ashes — The Rhododendron — The 
Mountain Laurel — The Madrona — The Sorrel 
Tree — The Silver Bell Trees — The Sweet Leaf 
— The Fringe Tree — The Laurel Family — The 
Witch Hazel — The Burning Bush — The Sumachs 
— The Smoke Tree — The Hollies 

THE MAGNOLIAS 

Four of the ten genera in the magnolia family are repre- 
sented in North America. Of these, two are trees. All 
are known by their large, simple, alternate leaves, with 
margins entire; their showy, solitary, terminal flowers, 
perfect and with all parts distinct; and their cone- 
like fruits, compounded of many one- or two-seeded 
follicles, shingling over each other upon a central spike. 
The wood is soft and light throughout the family, and the 
roots are fleshy. The sap is watery and the bark is bitter 
and aromatic. 

The genus magnolia, named by Linnaeus in honor of 
Pierre Magnol, a French botanist, includes twenty species; 
twelve are native to eastern and southern Asia, two to 
Mexico, and six to eastern North America. They are of 

101 



102 TREES 

peculiar interest to horticulturists and to the general pub- 
lic, because they have the largest flowers of any trees in 
cultivation. A white blossom from six inches to a foot 
across is bound to attract attention and admiration when 
set off by a whorl of lustrous evergreen leaves. The petals 
of most magnolia blossoms are notably thick and waxy in 
texture and deliciously fragrant. Last but not least 
are the cone-like fruits, which flush from pale green to rose 
as they ripen against the dark, leathery foliage; at maturity 
their follicles open in a peculiar fashion and hang out their 
bright red seeds on slender elastic threads. Foliage, 
flowers, or cones alone would make magnolias superb as 
ornamental trees. All these qualities combined have 
given them a preeminent place in every country where 
ornamental planting is done. North America is fortunate 
in having so large a number of species that assume tree 
form. 

When you see a magnolia in the North blossoming be- 
fore the leaves, you may be sure it is an exotic species, and 
if the flowers are colored you may be equally sure that it is 
a hybrid between two oriental species, and belongs to the 
group of which the type is M. Soulangeana. The owner 
may be a magnolia enthusiast, able to show you on his 
premises both parents of this interesting and beautiful 
hybrid. 

Yulan Magnolia 

Magnolia Yulan 

The Yulan magnolia, for centuries a favorite in Japanese 
gardens, covers itself before the leaves appear with pure 
white, fragrant flowers, bell-shaped and fully six inches 
across. In our Eastern gardens it is quite as much at 







■V- \ - : 




■ V. 





dee page 
THE TATTERED, SILK'S BARK OF THE BIRCHES 




See page 93 
BLOTCHED BARK OF THE SYCAMORE, AND THE SEED- 
BALLS THAT HANG ON ALL WINTER 




See 



/"'.'/' 



THE WARTY, RIDGED BARK, THE SWINGING SEED- 
BALLS, AND THE WINGED SEEDS OF THE SWEET GUM 




See page 109 



TULIP TREE, FLOWER AND LEAVES 



THE MAGNOLIAS 103 

home, and though young trees are oftenest seen, the older 
specimens are as large as any native magnolia. This is one 
parent. The other is but a shrub, the purple magnolia, 
M. obovata, that must be protected against the rigors of our 
Northern winters. It blooms in May or June, and its 
purple flowers, with rosy linings, are relatively small and al- 
most scentless. The children of this parentage get their 
tints of pink and rose and crimson from this purple mag- 
nolia shrub. 

Splendid, hardy, fragrant, big-flowered varieties have 
arisen from this cross. All are small trees, suitable for 
planting in city yards, where they are decorative through- 
out the season. 

Starry Magnolia 

M . stellata 

The starry magnolia blooms in March or April, covering 
itself with star-shaped white flowers made of strap-like 
petals that form a flat whorl instead of a cup. This is the 
earliest magnolia and wonderfully precocious, blooming 
when scarcely two feet high. 

The Southern states can grow the splendid Campbell's 
magnolia, which is in its glory in the high mountain 
valleys of the Himalayas, where it reaches one hundred feet 
in height. The fragrant flower-cups, from six to ten 
inches in diameter, shade from pink to crimson. It is rare 
in cultivation because it is not easy to grow, and northern 
horticulturists fail utterly to grow it outdoors; but the fact 
that it is the most beautiful of all exotic species must en- 
courage its culture in the South, and difficulties will be over- 
come when the tree's peculiar needs are fully understood. 



104 TREES 

The Great Laurel Magnolia 

M. foetida, Sarg. 

The great laurel magnolia is of tenest seen in cultivation 
as a small tree of pyramidal or conical habit, with stiff, 
ascending branches, bearing a lustrous mass of leathery 
oval leaves, five to eight inches long, lined with dull green, 
or with rusty down, persistent until the second spring. 
When small these magnolia trees are as conventional as the 
rubber plants in hotel lobbies, whose foliage resembles 
theirs. But in the forests of Louisiana, where this tree 
reaches its greatest perfection, it earns the characterization 
that Sargent gave it, "the most splendid ornamental tree 
in the American forests." With a trunk four feet thick, 
and its head lifted from fifty to eighty feet above the 
ground and with each leaf cluster holding up a great white 
flower, waxy as a camellia, seven to eight inches across, the 
tree is indeed superb. William Bar tram likened these 
flowers to great white roses, distinctly visible from a dis- 
tance of a mile. 

The purple heart of the flower, made by a spot of color 
at the base of each petal, and the overpowering odor, rather 
sickening as the flowers fade, lure insects to the nectar 
store at the bottom of the flower-cup. This odor, dis- 
agreeable to many people, is the one objection to this 
flower when brought indoors. A drawback that florists 
discover is that the slightest bruise of the waxy petals 
produces a brownish discoloration, which prevents the 
shipment of these flowers. The splendid foliage, however, 
travels perfectly, and a new and growing industry is the 
gathering of magnolia branches in Southern woods for 



THE MAGNOLIAS 105 

Christmas decoration. These branches are offered in all 
Northern cities, and this demand threatens the extinction 
of the tree, which until comparatively recent years has en- 
joyed immunity because of the worthlessness of its soft 
wood. 

The tree's natural range is from the North Carolina 
coast to Tampa Bay, and west along the Gulf Coast to 
Texas and southern Arkansas. As an ornamental tree, it 
is safely planted in Philadelphia, but its life is precarious 
farther north. It is widely grown in southern California 
as a street tree, notably in Pasadena and in parks and 
gardens for its blossoms, foliage, and fuzzy, horny cones. 



The Swamp Bay 

M. glauca, Linn. 

The swamp bay has lustrous, bright green leaves with 
silvery linings. In Florida and across to Texas and Arkan- 
sas it grows into a superb evergreen tree, fifty to seventy- 
five feet in height. Northward along the Atlantic Coast its 
growth is stunted as the climate becomes more rigorous, 
until it reaches Massachusetts and Long Island, where it 
becomes a many-stemmed shrub, whose beautiful leaves 
fall in the autumn. On the streets of cities near the New 
Jersey swamps the flowers of the swamp bay are offered for 
sale in May. The buds are almost globular, and each one 
is surrounded by a cluster of new leaves. To spring back 
these waxy white petals, that are marred by a touch, is 
criminal; but it is the common practice with boys who 
hawk these flowers on the streets. Most of the charm is 
gone from flowers thus defiled by dingy fingers. 



106 TREES 

The finest flowers are borne on strong young shoots* 
The florists collect and handle them with extreme care. 
Much of the swamp land now useless along the Atlantic 
seaboard could be profitably planted to this magnolia, for 
the florist trade alone. The flowers bloom slowly through 
a period of several weeks. The enterprising owner of tracts 
planted to swamp bay could reap two harvests a year, al- 
most from the first season: the flowers in spring and the 
leafy shoots for holiday decorations. In the South the 
leaves are evergreen. 

The Large-leaved Cucumber Tree 

M . macrophylla, Michx. 

The large-leaved cucumber tree exceeds all other magno- 
lias in the size of its leaves and flowers. In fact, no tree out- 
side the tropics can match it, for its blades are almost a yard 
in length. The flowers are great white bowls, sometimes a 
foot across, made of six white waxy petals, much broader 
than the three protecting sepals outside. The inner petals 
have purple spots at the base. The fruits are almost 
globular, two to three inches long, turning red as they 
mature, equally showy when the scarlet seeds dangle from 
the open follicles. 

These trees are at home in fertile valleys among the foot- 
hills of the Alleghanies, from North Carolina to middle 
Florida, and west to central Arkansas. Their range is not 
continuous. They occur in scattered groups that have 
come from seed. 

The horticulturist has greatly aided nature in the spread 
of this tree in this country and in Europe, where its flowers 
and leaves attract universal attention. The mistake 



THE MAGNOLIAS 107 

usually made is to plant it in the middle of a lawn where 
the wind lashes the broad leaves into ribbons before they 
have reached their full size. Every twig or leaf that 
touches a petal mars it with a brown bruise. The only 
way to enjoy one of these remarkable trees is to plant it in 
the most sheltered situation, where the sunshine will reach 
it and the breezes will not. Then the silver-lined foliage 
and the superb white blossoms can come to perfection and 
the sight is worth going miles to see. 

The Cucumber Tree 

M. acuminata, Linn. 

The cucumber tree is the hardiest of our native magnolias, 
tropical-looking by reason of its heart-shaped leaves, six to 
ten inches long. Its chosen habitat is rocky uplands, 
where the fleshy roots can find moist soil. It ranges from 
western New York to Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, 
and follows the mountain foothills through Pennsylvania 
and Tennessee into Alabama and Mississippi. 

The flowers are like tulips, and though large can scarcely 
be seen among the new leaves, because they are all yellow- 
ish green in color. The petals are leaf -like and the flowers 
have no fragrance to make up for their lack of beauty. 
Imperfect pollination results in distorted, fleshy cones 
that resemble cucumbers that have twisted and shrunken 
in spots as they grew. These fruits turn from pink to red 
as they mature, redeeming their ugly shape by their vivid 
color as the leaves turn yellow. In September, the scarlet 
seeds hang out and the wind whips them until they dangle 
several inches below the fruit. One by one they drop and 
new cucumber trees come up from this planting. 



108 TREES 

The wood of the cucumber tree is light, close-textured, 
weak, and pale brown in color. It has only local use in 
cabinet-making and for flooring. The tree is far more val- 
uable in horticulture. It is a splendid stock on which to 
graft less hardy magnolias. It is a superb avenue and 
shade tree for Northern cities, and in this capacity it is as 
yet little known. It grows vigorously from seed, and 
stands transplanting, if care is used that the brittle roots 
are not mutilated nor dried. 



The Umbrella Tree 

M. tripetala, Linn. 

The umbrella tree has an umbrella-like whorf of leaves 
surrounding the flower whose white cup stands above 
three recurving white sepals. The whole tree .suggests an 
umbrella, so closely thatched is its dome of thin, bright 
green leaves. 

The stout contorted branches and twigs lack symmetry, 
from the forking habit. Side twigs strike out at right 
angles from an erect branch, then turn up into a position 
parallel with the parent branch, and bear terminal flowers, 
which induce another branching system the following year. 
Despite its angularity this is the trimmest and one of the 
handsomest of our native magnolias, and it has the merit 
of hardiness even in New England, where it attains large 
size. Its native range extends from Pennsylvania near the 
coast, along the Atlantic seaboard, and westward to 
southern Alabama and Arkansas. It loves swamp borders 
and the banks of mountain streams, but behaves well in the 
moderately rich soil of parks and gardens. 



THE MAGNOLIAS 109 

The Tulip Tree 

Liriodendron tulipifera, Linn. 

The tulip tree is a cousin, rather than a sister, to the fore- 
going magnolias. It stands alone in its genus in America, 
but has a sister species that grows in the Chinese interior. 
A tall, stately forest tree, it reached two hundred feet in 
height, and a trunk diameter of ten feet, in the lower Ohio 
Valley, when it was covered with virgin forest. This 
species still holds its own as a valuable lumber tree on 
mountain slopes of North Carolina and Tennessee. 
Smaller, but still stately and beautiful, it is found in woods 
from Vermont to Florida and west to Illinois, Arkansas, 
and Mississippi. 

In Europe the tulip tree has been a favorite since its dis- 
covery and exportation by the American colonists. More 
and more it is coming to be appreciated at home as a lawn 
and shade tree, for there is no time in the year when it is 
not full of interest and beauty, and no time in its life when 
it is not a distinct and beautiful addition to any plantation. 

In the dead of winter young tulip trees are singularly 
straight and symmetrical compared with saplings of 
other trees. There is usually a grove of them, planted by 
some older tree that towers overhead, and still holds up its 
shiny cones, that take months to give up their winged 
seeds. The close, thick, intricately furrowed bark of the 
parent tree contrasts sharply with the smooth rind of its 
branches and the stems of the saplings. Tulip trees are 
trim as beeches until the trunks are old. 

The winter twigs are set with oblong blunt leaf-buds. 
The terminal one contains the flower, when the tree is old 



110 TREES 

enough to bloom. (See illustration, page 103.) In spring 
the terminal buds of saplings best show the peculiarity of 
the tree's vernation. Two green leaves with palms to- 
gether form a flat bag that encloses the new shoot. Hold 
this bag up to the light and you see, as a shadow within, 
a curved petiole and leaf. The bag opens along its edge 
seam, the leaf-stem straightens, lifting the blade which is 
folded on the midrib. At the base of the petiole stands a 
smaller flat green bag. As the leaf grows to maturity the 
basal palms of its protecting bag shrivel and fall away, 
leaving the ring scar around the leaf base. 

Now the growing shoot has carried up the second bag, 
which opens and another leaf expands, sheds its leafy 
stipules, and a third follows. The studies of this unique 
vernation delight children and grown-ups. It is absolutely 
unmatched in the world of trees. 

The leathery blades of the tulip tree are from four to six 
inches broad and long, with basal lobes, like those of a 
maple leaf, and the end chopped off square. Occasionally 
there is a notch, made by the two end lobes projecting a 
trifle beyond the midrib. The leaves are singularly free 
from damage, keeping their dark lustrous beauty through 
the summer, and turning to clear yellow before they fall. 

The winged seeds fall first from the top of the erect 
cones, the wind whirling them far, because the flat blades 
are long and the seed-cases light — many of them empty in 
fact. Far into winter a tulip tree seems to be blossoming, 
because its bare branches are tipped with the remnants of 
the seed cones, faded and shining almost white against the 
dark branches. 

Tulip wood is soft and weak, pale brown, and light in 
weight. It is easily worked and is used locally for house- 



THE DOGWOODS 111 

and boat-building. Wood pulp consumes much of the 
yearly harvest. It is known as "poplar," whose wood it 
resembles. Ordinary postal cards are made of it. The 
bark yields a drug used as a heart stimulant. 



THE DOGWOODS 

Foliage of exceptional beauty is the distinguishing trait 
of the trees in the cornel family, from the standpoint of the 
landscape gardener and the lover of the woods. Showy 
flowers and fruit belong to some of the species; extremely 
hard, close-textured wood belongs to all; and this means 
slow growth, which is a limitation in the eyes of the planter 
who wishes quick results. But he who plants a cornel tree 
and watches it season after season, finds it one of the most 
interesting of nature studies through the whole round of 
the year. 

The dogwoods are slender-twigged trees of small size, 
with simple, entire leaves, strongly ribbed, and with one 
exception, set opposite upon the twigs. Fifty species are 
distributed over the Northern Hemisphere; one crosses the 
equator into Peru. Four of the seventeen species found in 
the United States are trees; the rest are shrubs, one of them 
the low-growing bunchberry of our Northern woods. 

The Flowering Dogwood 

Cornus florida, Linn. 

The flowering dogwood {see illustration, page 13~ r fYis a little 
tree whose round, bushy, flat-topped head is made of short, 
horizontal branches. The twigs hold erect in the winter 



112 TREES s 

a multitude of buds, large, squat, enclosed in four scales, 
like the husk of a hickory nut. All the delicate tints that 
the water-colorist delights in are found in these buds and 
the twigs that bear them. When spring comes, these 
scales loosen, expand, turn green, then fade into pure white 
— forming the four banners, ordinarily called petals — of the 
bloom of the dogwood. The true flowers are small and 
clustered in the centre. These white expanses are merely 
modified bud scales, the botanist will tell you, and the 
notch at the end is where the horny winter scale broke 
away, while its base was growing into the large white 
palm. 

From March till May one finds the dogwood clothed in 
white (see illustration, page 118) 9 and the glossy leaves pass- 
ing through changing hues from rose to green. The 
wayward arrangement of the blossoms on the branch is the 
delight of artists. Lured by the white signals, bees and 
other nectar-loving insects come to the flowers, cross- 
fertilizing them while they supply their own needs. In 
midsummer the pale green clusters of berries replace the 
flowers, and when in autumn the foliage, still glossy and 
smooth, changes to crimson and scarlet, the berries are 
brighter still, until the birds have taken every one. 

The bark of the dogwood is checkered like alligator skin 
but with deep furrows that make it very rough. The 
wood is used for wood engraving blocks, for tool handles, 
hubs, and cogs. But it is becoming very scarce. The de- 
plorable destruction of the dogwoods comes not so much 
from the lumberman as from the irresponsible people who 
tear the trees to pieces in blossoming time. The wanton 
mutilation of the dogwoods in natural woodlands belong- 
ing to cities can be curbed only by policing the tracts. The 



THE DOGWOODS 113 

saving of every flowering dogwood tree is a duty owed 
to his community by every wood-lot owner within the 
range of this hardy, handsome tree. Though exterminated 
over much of its range, it is able and willing to grow in any 
state east of the Mississippi River. It is one of the most 
deservedly popular trees planted for ornament in this 
country and in Europe. 

Western Dogwood 

C. Nuttallii, Aud. 

The Pacific Coast outdoes the rest of the country in 
the size of its forest trees. Superlatives in vegetation 
abound where the breath of the Japan current tempers the 
air. The Western dogwood often reaches one hundred 
feet in height in the forests near Seattle. Its flowers have 
six, instead of four, of the petal-like, white bracts, each 
narrower and pointed, and without the terminal notch. 
The tree in blossom is more magnificent than the eastern 
species, for the flowers are often twice as large, and the 
spectacle of one of these trees, after the leaves turn to 
scarlet in autumn, and it leans against the sombre ever- 
greens that cover the mountainside, is always startling, 
even in a country where surprises are the rule. 

European Dogwood 

C. mas. 

The European dogwood or cornel is often planted in the 
Eastern states as an ornamental tree, but not for its 
flowers alone, though these tiny, button-like clusters 
cover the bare branches in earnest spring. The showy 






114 TREES 

fruits look like scarlet olives hanging among the glossy 
foliage in late summer. These fruits are edible, and in 
Europe are used in preserves and cordials. 



THE VIBURNUMS 

The honeysuckle family, which includes a multitude of 
ornamental shrubs, furnishes two genera with three repre- 
sentatives. Handsome foliage, showy flowers, and at- 
tractive fruits justify the popularity of this family in 
gardens and parks. 

The viburnums are distributed over the Northern 
Hemisphere and extend into the tropics. There are about 
one hundred species, including the old-fashioned snowball 
bush, perhaps the best-known species in this country. 
Discriminating gardeners have replaced it by the Japanese 
snowball, because the latter has much more handsome 
foliage and perfect flowers, instead of the barren flower 
cluster that has nothing to show for itself once the bloom 
is past. This new species wears the autumn decoration 
of bright red berries well into the winter. 

The Sheepberry 

Viburnum lentago, Linn. 

In our native woods the sheepberry is a small round- 
headed tree, with slim, drooping branches and oval leaves, 
finely cut-toothed and tapering to wavy- winged petioles. 
In autumn these leathery leaves change to orange and red, 
their shiny surfaces contrasting with the dull lining, pitted 
with black dots. The fruit, a loose cluster of dark blue 



THE VIBURNUMS 115 

berries, on branching red stems, is an attractive color 
contrast, and the birds flutter in the trees until they have 
eaten the last one. The fragrant white flowers light up 
the tree from April to June with their flat clusters three 
to five inches across. The opposite arrangement of the 
leaves and that short-winged petiole identify the little 
tree, whether it grows by the swamp borders, along the 
streams, or in parks and gardens. At any season it is 
good to look upon. Its range covers the eastern half of 
the country, extending almost to the Gulf of Mexico and 
west into Wyoming. 

The Rusty Nannyberry 

V. rufidulum, Raff. 

The rusty nannyberry is easily distinguished by the 
rusty hairs that clothe its new shoots and the stems and 
veins of the leaves. White flower clusters are succeeded 
by bright blue berries of unusual size and brilliance, ripe 
in October, on red-stemmed pedicles. The handsome 
polished leaves are rounded at the tips. The wood of this 
little tree has a very unpleasant odor, but this trait has no 
bearing upon its merits as a garden ornament. It is 
found wild from Virginia to Illinois and southward. In 
cultivation it is hardy in the latitude of Boston. 

The Black Haw 

V. pruni folium, Linn. 

The black haw has the characteristic flowers and fruit 
of its genus, but is smaller throughout than the other two, 
and its branches are stout. In European parks and gar- 



116 TREES 

dens it is known as the "stagbush." Its fruit turns dark 
when dead ripe, and persists well into the winter. In the 
wilds, this little viburnum is found from southern New 
England to Michigan, and south to Georgia and Texas. 



THE MOUNTAIN ASHES 

The handsome foliage and showy flower clusters make 
the mountain ashes a favorite group of little trees for 
border shrubberies and other ornamental planting. The 
foliage is almost fern-like in delicacy and it spreads in a 
whorl below the flower clusters in spring and the scarlet 
berry clusters in autumn. Far into the winter after the 
foliage has dropped the berries persist, supplying the birds 
with food, especially in snowy winters, when their need is 
greatest, and brightening the dull thickets of bare twigs 
on dreary days. 

Eastern Mountain Ash 

Sorbus Americana, Marsh. 

The common eastern mountain ash reaches thirty feet 
in height — a slender, pyramidal tree, with spreading 
branches and delicate leaves of from thirteen to seventeen 
leaflets. The flat-topped cluster of creamy white flowers 
(see illustration, page 135) appears in May and June, above 
the dark yellow-green foliage; and the scarlet berries, ripe 
in September when the leaves have turned yellow, may 
persist until spring. Along the borders of swamps and 
climbing rocky bluffs, often scattered in plum thickets, 
these trees are handsome at any season. Along the 
mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina home reme- 



THE MOUNTAIN ASHES 117 

dies are made out of the berries. From Newfoundland 
to Manitoba and southward the tree grows wild and is 
planted for ornament in home grounds. 

Elder-leaved Mountain Ash 

S. sambucifolia, Roem. 

The elder-leaved mountain ash overlaps the first species, 
and is even more daring as a climber. It ranges from 
Labrador to Alaska, follows the Rocky Mountains to 
Colorado, and in the Eastern states goes no farther south 
than Pennsylvania. Its leaves are graceful and drooping 
like the elder. The flowers and fruits are large; the whole 
tree tropical looking, its open, pyramidal head giving each 
leaf a chance at the sun. 

European Mountain Ash 

S. Aucuparia, Linn. 1 

Most common in cultivation is the European mountain 
ash called in England the rowan tree. This trim round- 
headed species is very neat and conventional compared 
with its wild cousins, but in the craggy highlands of Scot- 
land and Wales it much resembles our mountain ashes. 

Old superstitions cluster around the rowan tree in all 
rural sections. These are preserved in the folk-lore and 
the literature of many countries. Rowans were planted 
by cottage doors and at the gates of church yards, being 
considered effectual in exorcising evil spirits. Leafy 
twigs hung over the thresholds, crosses made of "Roan" 
wood given out on festival days, were worn as charms or 
amulets. Milkmaids, especially, depended upon these 



i 



118 TREES 

for the defeat of the "black elves" who constantly tried 
to make their cows go dry, and unless prevented got into 
the churns — and then the butter would never come! 

The farther north a tree can grow, the more likely it is 
to have close relatives in the Old World. One mountain 
ash of Japan is hardly distinguishable from our western 
species, and some authorities believe that our two native 
species are but varieties of the rowan tree of Europe. 



THE RHODODENDRON 

The heath family, of about sixty-seven genera, distrib- 
uted over the temperate and tropical countries of the 
earth, has twenty -one genera in the United States, seven 
of which have tree representatives. Azaleas, the multi- 
tude of the heathers, the huckleberries, the madronas, 
call to mind flower shows we have seen — under glass, in 
gardens, in parks, and among mountain fastnesses bright- 
ened by the loveliness of the mountain laurel, azalea, and 
rhododendron. In this wonderful family the leaves are 
simple and mostly evergreen. Rarely are the fruits 
of any importance. It is the flowers in masses that give 
the chief distinction to a family with over a thousand 
species, which have been the subjects of study and culti- 
vation through centuries. The type of the family is the 
Scotch heather, immortalized in song and story. In 
London the Christmas season is marked by the sale of 
half a million little potted plants of heather! Each is 
about a foot in height and bears a thousand tiny bells, 
rosy, with white lips. This is the poor man's Christmas 
flower. It costs a shilling and lasts a month or more. 




h 



4 




See page 99 
THE OSAGE ORANGE 
Flowers appear in June, after the lustrous leaves 






THE RHODODENDRON 119 

Trees are scarce in the heath family. Shrubs are in the 
majority. The azaleas, which the Belgian gardeners 
have brought to such perfection and developed in such a 
great number of varieties, are among the best known of 
the heaths. The profuse blossoms in potted azaleas 
entirely extinguish the foliage, and the flowers are almost 
as lasting as if they were artificial. 

The genus rhododendron in American woods is repre- 
sented by a mountain shrub and a tree. Both are ever- 
green and both are widely planted for ornament during 
the entire season. Carloads of these wonderful plants 
are shipped from the mountain slopes of the Alleghanies 
for mass planting on rocky ground, and to cover embank- 
ments along the drives in great estates. Because of the 
altitude of their native habitat, they are hardy in New 
England, and even as far as the Great Lakes. In time of 
bloom, these masses are the great flower show of the coun- 
tryside, and in winter nothing is more beautiful than the 
evergreen foliage of rhododendrons, lifted out of the snow. 

Great Laurel or Rose Bay 

Rhododendron maximum, Linn. 

Among the Alleghany Mountains, from Virginia south- 
ward, the great laurel rises to a height of forty feet, 
and interlaces its boughs with those of Fraser's magnolia 
and the mountain hemlock in the dense forest cover. 
Thickets of rhododendron trees are common, and though 
its stature is reduced, it follows the highlands into New 
York, and is one of the most striking and beautiful shrubs 
in the Pennsylvania mountains. Scattered and becoming 
more rare and more stunted, it reaches Lake Erie and on 



120 TREES 

into New Brunswick. The leaves crown each of the stiff 
branches with an umbrella-like whorl, that stands guard 
in winter time about a large scaly bud. In spring the 
scales fall and a cone-like flower cluster rises. Each 
blossom is white, marked with yellow or orange spots, in 
the bell-like corolla's throat; or the flowers may be pale 
rose, with deeper tones in the unopened buds. A great 
tree in blossom, with its flower clusters lighting up the 
umbrella-like whorls of glossy, evergreen leaves, illumi- 
nates the woods, and makes every other tree look common- 
place beside it. 

In late summer, green capsules, each with a curving 
style at the top, cluster where the flowers stood, but these 
are scarcely ornamental. The evergreen leaves and the 
buds, full of promise for June blossoming, are the beautiful 
features of rhododendrons in winter. 

The wonderful array of color and profusion of bloom, 
seen in an exhibit of rhododendrons and azaleas, is the 
most convincing proof of what crossing and careful selec- 
tion can do in developing races of flowering plants. The 
ancestry of all these tub-plants is a matter of record, and 
goes back to a few comparatively insignificant wffl species, 
competing with all the rest of the native flora for a liveli- 
hood. 

THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

The mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia, Linn.) grows from 
Nova Scotia to Lake Erie and southward through New 
England and New York, and along the Alleghanies to 
northern Georgia. Hardier than the rhododendrons, 
smaller in blossoms and in foliage, the laurel is in many 



THE MADRONA 121 

points its superior in beauty. In June and July the pol- 
ished evergreen foliage of the kalmia bushes is almost over- 
whelmed by the masses of its exquisite pink blossoms, be- 
side which the bloom of rhododendrons looks coarse and 
crude in coloring. Coral-red fluted buds with pointed 
tips show the richest color, making with the yellow-green 
of the new leaves one of the most exquisite color combina- 
tions in any spring shrubbery. The largest buds open 
first, spreading into wide five-lobed corollas, with two 
pockets in the base of each forming a circle of ten pockets. 
Ten stamens stand about the free central pistil, and the 
anther of eaph is hid in a pocket of the corolla — the slender 
filament bent backward. This is a curious contrivance for 
insuring cross-fertilization through the help of the bees. 
(See "Flowers Worth Knowing") 

Linnaeus commemorated in the name of this genus the 
devoted and arduous labors of Peter Kalm, the Swedish 
botanist, who sent back to his master at the university of 
Upsala specimens of the wonderful and varied flora found 
in his travels in eastern North America. Most of the 
names accredited to Linnaeus were given to plants he 
never saw except as dried herbarium specimens from the 
New World. 

THE MADRONA 

The madrofia (Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh.), another mem- 
ber of the Heath family, is one of the superbly beautiful 
trees in the forests that stretch from British Columbia 
southward into California. South of the bay of San 
Francisco and on the dry eastern slopes of California 
mountains it is stunted to a shrub, but on the high, well- 



122 .TREES 

drained slopes through the coast region and in the red- 
wood forests of northern California it is a tree that reaches 
a hundred feet in height. 

John Muir writes : " The madrona, clad in thin, smooth, 
red and yellow bark, with big, glossy leaves, seems in the 
dark coniferous forests of Washington and Vancouver 
Island like some lost Wanderer from the magnolia groves 
in the South." All the year around this is one of the most 
beautiful of American trees. It bears large conical clusters 
of white flowers above the vivid green of its leathery 
leaves, that are wonderfully lightened by silvery linings. 
In autumn the red-brown of the branches is enriched and 
intensified by the luxuriant clusters of scarlet berries 
against the red and orange of the two-year-old leaves. 
Among the giant redwoods this tree commands the highest 
admiration. 

THE SORREL TREE 

The sorrel tree, or sour-wood (Oxydendrum arboreum, 
DC.) belongs among the heaths. Its vivid scarlet autumn 
foliage is its chief claim to the admiration of gardeners. In 
spring the little tree is beautiful in its bronze-green foliage, 
and in late July and August it bears long branching 
racemes of tiny bell-shaped white flowers. This multitude 
of little bells suggests the tree's relationship to the blossom- 
ing heather we see in florists' shops. 

The leaves give the tree its two common names: they 
have a sour taste, resembling that of the herbaceous sor- 
rels. The twigs, even in the dead of winter, yield this re- 
freshing acid sap, that flows through the veins of the mem- 
branous leaves in summer. Many a hunter, temporarily 



THE SILVER BELL TREES 123 

lost in Southern woods, quenches his thirst by nibbling 
young shoots of the sour- wood. 

After the flower comes a downy capsule, five-celled, with 
numerous pointed seeds. The leaves are not unlike those 
of a plum tree except that they attain a length of five to 
seven inches. In the woods from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
Indiana, southward to Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and 
Arkansas thjs tree ranges, and we often see it in cultivation 
as far north as Boston. It grows to its largest size on the 
western slopes of the Big Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, 
attaining here a height of sixty feet. In cultivation it is 
one of the little, slender-stemmed, dainty trees, beautiful 
at any season. It is the sole representative of its genus in 
the world, so far as botanists know. 



THE SILVER BELL TREES 

The silver bell tree {Mohrodendron tetraptera, Britt.) 
earns its name in May when among the green leaves the 
clustered bell flowers gradually pale from green to white, 
with rosy tints that seem to come from the ruddy flower- 
stems. A "snowdrop tree" may be eighty feet in height 
in the mountains of east Tennessee and western North 
Carolina, but ordinarily we see it in gardens and parks as a 
delicate, slender-branched tree, that stands out from every 
other species in the border as the loveliest thing that blooms 
there. 

Not a moment in spring lacks interest if one has a little 
mohrodendron tree to watch. For weeks the ruddy twigs 
grow ruddier by the opening of leaf and flower buds; then 
comes the slow fading of the flowers, when sun and rain 



124 TREES 

seem to work together to bleach them into utter purity of 
color and texture. Gradually the white bells fade and a 
queer little green, tapering seed-case enlarges and ripens. 
Through the late summer these pale green fruits are ex- 
ceedingly ornamental as the leaves turn to pale yellow. 

In cultivation, the silver bell tree is hardy in the New 
England states, but in its native woods it grows north no 
farther than West Virginia and Illinois. It is easily trans- 
planted and pruned to bush form, if one desires to keep the 
blossoming down where the perfection of the flowers can be 
enjoyed at close range. 

Snowdrop Tree 

M. diptera, Britt. 

A second species called the snowdrop tree skirts the 
swamps along the South Atlantic and Gulf coast and fol- 
lows the Mississippi bayous to southern Arkansas. It is 
smaller in stature than the silver bell tree, but has larger 
leaves and more showy flowers. The botanical names 
record the chief specific difference between the two species: 
this one has but two wings on its seed-cases, while the other 
has four. This species is hardy no farther north than 
Philadelphia. The flowers have their bells cleft almost to 
the base, whereas the bell of the other species is merely 
notched at the top. 

THE SWEET LEAF 

Two genera of trees in this country are temperate zone 
representatives of a tropical family which furnishes ben- 
zoine, torax, and other valuable balsams of commerce. It 



THE SWEET LEAF 120 

is easy to see that these trees are strangers from warm 
countries, for many of their traits are singularly unfamiliar. 



The Sweet Leaf 

Symplocos tinctoria, L'Her. 

The sweet leaf is our solerepresentativeof alarge genus of 
trees native to the forests of Australia and the tropics in 
Asia and South America. They yield important drugs and 
dyestuffs, particularly in British India. But the sweet 
leaf is a small tree, rarely over twenty feet in height, with 
ashy gray bark, warty and narrowly fissured. In earliest 
spring its twigs are clothed with yellow or white blossoms 
that come in a procession and cover the tree from March 
until May, preceding the leaves, and breathing a wonder- 
ful fragrance into the air. The leaves are small, leathery, 
dark green, lustrous above, deciduous in the regions of 
colder winters, persistent from one to two years in the 
warmer part of its range. The flowers are succeeded by 
brown berries that ripen in summer, or early autumn. 
The flesh is dry about the single seed. 

Horses and cattle greedily browse upon the foliage, 
which has a distinctly sweet taste. The bark and leaves 
both yield a yellow dye, and the roots a tonic from their 
bitter, aromatic sap. 

" Horse sugar" is another local name for this little tree, 
which is found sparingly from Delaware to Florida, west 
to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in the Gulf states to 
Louisiana and northward into Arkansas and to eastern 
Texas. It is a shade-loving tree, usually found under the 
forest cover of taller species, skirting the borders of 



126 TREES 

cypress swamps, and climbing to elevations of nearly three 
thousand feet on the slopes of the Blue Ridge. 

A wonderful new species of symplocos has come into 
cultivation from Japan and will enjoy a constantly in- 
creasing popularity. Its fragrant white blossoms, before 
the leaves, make the tree look like a hawthorn; but its 
unique distinction is that the racemed flowers give place 
to berries of a brilliant turquoise blue, which make this 
shrubby tree a most striking and beautiful object in the 
autumn when the leaves are turning yellow. 

THE FRINGE TREE 

Native to the middle and southern portions of the 
United States is a slender little tree (Chionanthus Vir- 
ginica, Linn.), whose sister species inhabits northern and 
central China. Both of them cover their branches with 
delicate, fragrant white flowers, in loose drooping panicles, 
when the leaves are about one third grown. Each flower 
has four slender curving petals an inch long, but exceed- 
ingly narrow. In May and June the tree is decked with 
a bridal veil of white that makes it one of the most ethereal 
and the most elegant of lawn and park trees at this su- 
preme moment of the year. Later the leaves broaden 
and reach six to eight inches in length, tapering narrowly 
to the short petioles. Thick and dark green, with plain 
margins, and conspicuously looped venation near the 
edges, these leaves suggest a young magnolia tree. Blue 
fruits the size of plums succeed the flowers in September, 
denying the magnolia theory and shading to black before 
they fall. The flesh is dry and seeds solitary under the 
thick skin of the drupe. 



THE LAUREL FAMILY 127 

As in many other instances, European gardeners have 
led in the appreciation of this American ornamental tree. 
However, New England has planted it freely in parks and 
gardens, and popularity will follow wherever it becomes 
known. Its natural distribution is from southern Penn- 
sylvania to Florida, and west to Arkansas and Texas. 
In cultivation it is hardy and flourishes far north of its 
natural range. No garden that can have a fringe tree 
should be without it. Fortunately its wood is negligible 
in quantity, and the temptation to chop down these trees 
does not come to the ignorant man with an axe. Whoever 
goes to the woods in May is rewarded for many miles of 
tramping if he comes upon a "snow-flower tree" in the 
height of its blooming season, led perhaps by its delicate 
fragrance when the little tree is overshadowed by the 
deep green of the forest cover. It is an experience that 
will not be forgotten soon. 



THE LAUREL FAMILY 

The laurel family, a large group of aromatic trees and 
shrubs found chiefly in the tropics, includes with our 
sassafras, laurels, and bays the cinnamon and camphor 
trees. 

California Laurel 

Umbellaria Calif ornica, Nutt. 

The California laurel climbs the western slopes of the 
Sierra Nevada from the forests of southwestern Oregon 
to the San Bernardino range near Los Angeles. "Up 
North" it is called pepperwood. It is a lover of wet soil, 



, 



f 



128 TREES 

so it keeps near streams. With the broad-leaved maple 
it gives character to the deciduous growth near the north- 
ern boundaries of California, where it reaches eighty to 
ninety feet in height, and a trunk diameter of four to five 
feet. Sometimes it is tall, but usually it divides near the 
ground into several large diverging stems, forming a 
broad round head. In southern California, and at high 
elevations, it oftenest occurs as a low shrub. 

The willow-like leaves, lustrous and evergreen, last 
often through the sixth season. Unfolding in winter or 
early spring, they continue to appear as the branches 
lengthen until late in the autumn, turning to beautiful 
yellow or orange and falling one by one. Beginning dur- 
ing the second season, they continue to drop, as new shoots 
loosen their hold. These leaves are rich in an aromatic 
oil which causes them to burn readily when piled green 
upon a campfire. Plum-like purple fruits succeed the 
small white fragrant flowers, borne in clusters in the axils 
of the leaves. The seeds germinate before the fruit 
begins to decay. Indeed the plantlet has attained con- 
siderable size before the acid flesh shows any signs of 
change. 

This tree is a superb addition to the parks and gardens 
of the Pacific Coast. It is strikingly handsome in a land 
of handsome trees, native and exotic. Its wood is the 
most beautiful and valuable produced in the forests of 
Pacific North America for the interior finish of houses and 
for furniture. It is heavy, hard, strong, fine-grained, 
light brown, of a rich tone, with paler sap-wood, that in- 
cludes the annual growth of thirty or forty seasons. The 
leaves yield by distillation a pungent, aromatic, volatile 
oil, and the fruit a fatty acid commercially valuable. 



THE LAUREL FAMILY 129 

The Red Bay 

Persea Borbonia, Streng. 

Another laurel native to stream and swamp borders, 
from Virginia to Texas and north to Arkansas, is the red 
bay, whose bark, thick, red, and furrowed into scaly ridges 
on the trunk, becomes smooth and green on the branches. 
The evergreen leaves are narrowly oval, three to four 
inches long, bright green, polished, with pale linings. The 
white flowers are very minute bells borne in axillary clus- 
ters, succeeded in autumn by blue or black shiny berries, 
one half inch long, one-seeded, making a pretty contrast 
with the clear yellow of the year-old leaves and the bright 
green of the new ones. 

This native laurel, lover of rich, moist soil, deserves the 
place in cultivation more commonly granted its European 
cousin, Laurus nobilis, Linn., the familiar tub laurel of 
hotel verandas in the Northern states, and much grown 
out of doors in southern California and in milder climates 
east. The tree is occasionally sixty to seventy feet high, 
with trunk two to three feet in diameter. Such specimens 
furnish the cabinet-maker and carpenter with a beautiful, 
bright red, close-grained wood for fine interior finish and 
furniture. Formerly it was used in the construction of 
river boats, but the timber supply is now very limited. 

The Avocado 

P. gratissima, Gaertn. 

In Florida and southern California the avocado or 
alligator pear is being extensively cultivated. This 



> 



130 TREES 

laurel grows wild in the West Indies, Brazil, Peru, and 
Mexico. Its berry attains the size of a large pear. It has 
been developed in several commercial varieties, all having 
smooth green or purple skin, and soft oily pulp like mar- 
row surrounding a single gigantic seed. It is usually cut 
in two like a melon and eaten raw as a salad dressed with 
vinegar, salt, and pepper. Once a stranger acquires the 
taste, he is extremely fond of this new salad fruit. The 
growing of the trees is easy and very profitable. At 
present the fruits are in great demand in city markets, 
and the prices are too high for any but the rich to enjoy 
this luxury. 

Where a market is difficult to reach, the abundant oil is 
expressed from these fruits and used for illumination and 
the manufacture of soap. The seeds yield an indelible ink. 

It is interesting to the student of trees to note how many 
tropical families have representation in North America, 
due to the fact that Florida extends into the tropics, and 
the West Indies seem to form a sort of bridge over which 
Central American and South American species have 
reached the Floridian Keys and the mainland. 

The Sassafras 

Sassafras, Karst. 

The sole remnant of an ancient genus is the aro- 
matic sassafras familiar as a roadside tree that flames 
in autumn with the star gum and the swamp maples. In 
the deep woods it reaches a height of more than a 
hundred feet and is an important lumber tree. In the 
arctic regions and in the rocky strata of our western 
mountains, fossil leaves of sassafras are preserved, and 



THE LAUREL FAMILY 131 

the same traces are found in Europe, giving to the geologist 
proofs that the genus once had a much wider range than 
now. But no living representative of the genus was known 
outside of eastern North America, until the report of a 
recently discovered sassafras in China. 

The Indians in Florida named the sassafras to the 
inquiring colonists who came with Columbus. They ex- 
plained its curative properties, and its reputation traveled 
up the Atlantic seaboard. The first cargo of home 
products shipped by the colonists back to England 
from Massachusetts contained a large consignment 
of sassafras roots. To-day we look for an exhibit of 
sassafras bark in drug-store windows in spring. People 
buy it and make sassafras tea which they drink "to 
clear the blood." "In the Southwestern states the dried 
leaves are much used as an ingredient in soups, for which 
they are well adapted by the abundance of mucilage they 
contain. For this purpose the mature green leaves are 
dried, powdered (the stringy portions being separated), 
sifted and preserved for use. This preparation mixed 
with soups gives them a ropy consistence and a peculiar 
flavor, much relished by those accustomed to it. To such 
soups are given the names gombofile and gombo zab." (Seton.) 

Emerson says that in New England a decoction of 
sassafras bark gave to the housewife's homespun woolen 
cloth a permanent orange dye. The name "Ague Tree" 
originated with the use of sassafras bark tea as a stimulant 
that warmed and brought out the perspiration freely for 
victims of the malarial "ague," or "chills and fever." 

Sassafras wood is dull orange-yellow, soft, weak, light, 
brittle, and coarse-grained, but it is amazingly durable 
in contact with the soil, as the pioneers learned when they 



132 TREES 

used it to make posts and fence rails. It is largely used 
also in cooperage, and in the building of light boats. Oil 
of sassafras distilled from the bark of the roots is used for 
perfuming soaps and flavoring medicines. 

With all its practical uses listed above, we must all 
have learned to know the tree if it grows in our neighbor- 
hood, and if we observe it closely, month by month 
throughout the year, we shall all agree that its beauty 
justifies its selection for planting in our home grounds, and 
surpasses all its medicinal and other commercial offerings 
to the world. 

In winter the sassafras tree is most picturesque by reason 
of the short, stout, twisted branches that spread almost at 
right angles from the central shaft, and form a narrow, 
usually flat, often unsymmetrical head. The bark is 
rough, reddish brown, deeply and irregularly divided into 
broad scaly plates or ridges. The branches end in slim, pale 
yellow-green twigs that are set with pointed, bright green 
buds, giving the tree an appearance of being thoroughly 
alive while others, bare of leaves, look dead in winter. 

What country boy or girl has not lingered on the way 
home from school to nibble the dainty green buds of the 
sassafras, or to dig at the roots with his jack-knife for a 
sliver of aromatic bark? 

As spring comes on the bare twigs are covered with a 
delicate green of the opening leaves, brightened by clusters 
of yellow flowers {see illustration, "page 150) whose starry 
calyxes are alike on all of the trees; but only on the fertile 
trees are the flowers succeeded by the blue berries, soften- 
ing on their scarlet pedicels, if only the birds can wait until 
they are ripe. 

Midsummer is the time to hunt for "mittens" and to 



THE WITCH HAZEL 133 

note how many different forms of leaves belong on the 
same sassafras tree. First, there is the simple ovate leaf; 
second, a larger blade oval in form but with one side ex- 
tended and lobed to form a thumb, making the whole 
leaf look like the pattern of a mitten cut out by an un- 
skilled hand; third, a symmetrical, three-lobed leaf, the 
pattern of a narrow mitten with a large thumb on each 
side. Not infrequently do all these forms occur on a single 
twig. Only the mulberry, among our native trees, shows 
such a variety of leaf forms as the sassafras. There is 
quite as great variation in the size of the leaves. One 
law seems to prevail among sassafras trees: more of the 
oval leaves than the lobed ones are found on mature trees. 
It is the roadside sapling, with its foliage within easy 
reach, that delights boys and girls with its wonderful 
variety of leaf patterns. Here the size of the leaves greatly 
surpasses that of the foliage on full-grown trees, and the 
autumnal colors are more glorious in the roadside thickets 
than in the tree-tops far above them. 

Sassafras trees grow readily from seed in any loose, 
moist soil. A single tree spreads by a multitude of fleshy 
root-stalks, and these natural root-cuttings bear trans- 
planting as easily as a poplar. Every garden border 
should have one specimen at least to add its flame to the 
conflagration of autumn foliage and the charming con- 
trast of its blue berries on their coral stalks. 

THE WITCH HAZEL 

Eighteen genera compose the sub-tropical family in 
which hamamelis is the type. Two or three Asiatic 
species and one American are known. 



134 TREES 

The witch hazel (Hamamelis Virginiana, Linn.) is a stout, 
many-stemmed shrub or a small tree,l with rough unsymmet- 
rical leaves, strongly veined, coarsely toothed, and roughly 
diamond-shaped. The twigs, when bare, are set with hairy 
sickle-shaped buds. Nowhere in summer would an under- 
growth of witch hazel trees attract attention. But in 
autumn, when other trees have reached a state of utter rest, 
the witch hazel wakes and bursts into bloom. Among the 
dead leaves which stubbornly cling as they yellow, and 
often persist until spring, the tiny buds, the size of a pin- 
head, open into starry blossoms with petals like gold 
threads. The witch hazel thicket is veiled with these gold- 
mesh flowers, as ethereal as the haunting perfume which 
they exhale. Frost crisps the delicate petals but they curl 
up like shavings and stay till spring. At no time is the 
weather cold enough to destroy this November flower show. 

Among the blossoms are the pods in clusters, gaping 
wide if the seeds are shed; closed tight, with little monkey 
faces, if not yet open. The harvest of witch hazel seeds 
is worth going far to see. Damp weather delays this most 
interesting little game. Dry frosty weather is ideal for it. 

Go into a witch hazel thicket on some fine morning in 
early November and sit down on the drift of dead leaves 
that carpet the woods floor. The silence is broken now 
and then by a sharp report like a bullet striking against the 
bark of a near-by trunk, or skipping among the leaves. 
Perhaps a twinge on the ear shows that you have been a 
target for some tiny projectile, sent to its mark with force 
enough to hurt. 

The fusillade comes from the ripened pods, which have a 
remarkable ability to throw their seeds, and thus do for the 
parent tree what the winged seeds of other trees accom- 




See page 1 1 1 
BARK, BLOSSOM, FRUIT, AM) WINTER FLOWER BUDS OF 
THE FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



THE WITCH HAZEL 135 

plish. The lining of the two-celled pod is believed to 
shorten and produce a spring that drives the seeds forth 
with surprising force when they are loosened from their 
attachment. This occurs when the lips part. Frost and 
sun seem to decide just when to spring the trap and let fly 
the little black seeds. 

A young botanist went into the woods to find out just 
how far a witch hazel tree can throw its seeds. She chose 
an isolated tree and spread white muslin under it for many 
yards in four directions. The most remote of the many 
seeds she caught that day fell eighteen feet from the base 
of the tree. 

The Indians in America were the first people to use the 
bark of the witch hazel for curing inflammations. An in- 
fusion of the twigs and roots is now made by boiling them 
for twenty -four hours in water to which alcohol has been 
added. "Witch hazel extract," distilled from this mix- 
ture, is the most popular preparation to use for bruises and 
sprains, and to allay the pain of burns. Druggists and 
chemists have failed to discover any medicinal properties 
in bark or leaf, but the public has faith in it. The alcohol 
is probably the effective agent. 

Witch hazel comes honestly by its name. The English 
"witch hazel" is a species of elm to which superstitious 
miners went to get forked twigs to use as divining rods. 
No one in the countryside would dream of sinking a shaft 
for coal without the use of this forked twig. In any old and 
isolated country district in America there is usually a man 
whose reputation is based in his skilful use of a forked 
witch hazel twig. Sent for before a well is dug, he slowly 
walks over the ground, holding the twig erect by its two 
supple forks, one in each hand. When he passes over the 



136 TREES 

spot where the hidden springs of water are, the twig goes 
down, without any volition of the * ' water- witch . " At least, 
so he says, and if water is struck by digging, his claims are 
vindicated and scoffers hide their heads. 



THE BURNING BUSH 

American gardeners cherish with regard that amounts 
almost to affection any shrub or tree which will lend color, 
especially brilliant color, to the winter landscape. Thus 
the holly, the Japanese barberry, many of the haws, the 
mountain ash, and the rugosa rose will be found in the 
shrubbery borders of many gardens, supplying the birds 
with food when the ground is covered with snow, and 
sprinkling the brightness of their red berries against the 
monotony of dull green conifers. 

The burning bush (Euonymus atropurpureus, Jacq.) lends 
its scarlet fruits to the vivid colors that paint any winter 
landscape. They hang on slender stalks, clustered where 
the leaves were attached. Four flattish lobes, deeply sepa- 
rated by constrictions, form each of these strange-looking 
fruits. In October each is pale purplish in color and one 
half an inch across. Now the husk parts and curls back, 
revealing the seeds, each of the four enveloped in a loose 
scarlet wrinkled coat. Until midwinter the little tree is 
indeed a burning bush, glowing brighter as the advancing 
season opens wider the purple husks, and the little 
swinging Maltese cross, made by the four scarlet berries, 
is the only thing one sees, looking up from below. 
Birds take the berries, though they are bitter and 
poisonous. 



THE SUMACHS 137 



In spring the slender branchlets of this little tree are 
covered with opposite, pointed leaves, two to five inches 
long, and in their axils are borne purplish flowers, with four 
spreading recurving petals. In the centre of each is sup- 
ported a square platform upon which are the spreading 
anthers and styles. It does not require muqh botanical 
knowledge to see a family relationship between this tree 
and the woody vine we call "bitter-sweet"; the flowers and 
fruits are alike in many features. 

In Oklahoma and Arkansas and eastern Texas the 
burning bush becomes a good-sized tree and its hard, close- 
grained wood is peculiarly adapted to making spindles, 
knitting needles, skewers, and toothpicks. "Prickwood" 
is the English name. Chinese and Japanese species 
have been added to our list of flowering trees and vines. 
Two shrubby species of Euonymus belong to the flora 
of North America, but the bulk of the large family is 
tropical. 

Our dainty little American tree skirts the edges of deep 
woods from New York to Montana, and southward to the 
Gulf. In cultivation it extends throughout New England. 
"Wahoo," the common name in the South, is probably of 
Indian origin. 

THE SUMACHS 

The sumach family contains more than fifty genera, con- 
fined for the most part to the warmer regions of the globe. 
Two fruit trees within this family are the mango and the 
pistachio nut tree. Commercially important also is the 
turpentine tree of southern Europe. The Japanese 
lacquer tree yields the black varnish used in all lacquered 



138 TREES 

wares. The cultivated sumachs of southern Europe 
are important in the tanning industry, their leaves con- 
taining from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of tannic 
acid. 

In the flora of the United States three genera of the 
family have tree representatives. The genus Rhus, with a 
total of one hundred and twenty species, stands first. 
Most of these belong to South Africa; sixteen to North 
America where their distribution covers practically the 
entire continent. Of these, four attain the habit of small 
trees. 

Fleshy roots, pithy branchlets, and milky, or sometimes 
caustic or watery juice, belong to the sumachs, which are 
of tenest seen as roadside thickets or fringing the borders of 
woods. The f oliage is fernlike, odd-pinnate, rarely simple. 
The flowers are conspicuous by their crowding into termi- 
nal or axillary panicles, followed by bony fruits, densely 
crowded like the flowers. 



The Staghorn Sumach 

Rhus hirta, Sudw. 

The staghorn sumach is named for the densely hairy, 
forking branchlets, which look much like the horns of a 
stag "in the velvet." The foliage and fruit are also 
densely clothed with stiff pale hairs, usually red or bright 
yellow. 

The leaves reach two feet in length, with twenty or 
thirty oblong, often sickle-shaped leaflets, set opposite on 
the stem, and terminating in a single odd leaflet. Bright 
yellow-green until half grown, dark green and dull above 



THE SUMACHS 139 

when mature, often nearly white on the under surface, 
these leaves turn in autumn to bright scarlet, shading into 
purple, crimson, and orange. No sunset was ever more 
changeful and glorious than a patch of staghorn sumach 
that covers the ugliness of a railroad siding in October. 
After the leaves have fallen, the dull red fuzzy fruits per- 
sist, offering food to belated bird migrants and gradually 
fading to browns before spring. 

The maximum height of this largest of northern 
sumachs is thirty-five feet. The wood of such large speci- 
mens is sometimes used for walking-sticks and for tabou- 
rets and such fancy work as inlaying. Coarse, soft, and 
brittle, it is satiny when polished, and attractively streaked 
with orange and green. The young shoots are cut and 
their pith contents removed to make pipes for drawing 
maple sap from the trees in sugaring time. 

But the best use of the tree is for ornamental planting. 
In summer, the ugliness of the most unsightly bank is 
covered where this tree is allowed to run wild and throw up 
its root suckers unchecked. The mass effect of its fern- 
like foliage in spring is superb, when the green is lightened 
by the fine clusters of pink blossoms. No tree carries its 
autumn foliage longer nor blazes with greater splendor in 
the soft sunshine of the late year. The hairy staghorn 
branches, bared of leaves, hold aloft their fruits like lighted 
candelabra far into the waning winter. For screens and 
border shrubs this sumach may become objectionable, 
by reason of its habit of spreading by suckers as well as 
seed. 

Its choice of situations is broken uplands and dry, 
gravelly banks. Its range extends from New Brunswick 
to Minnesota and southward through the Northern states, 



140 TREES 

and along the mountains to the Gulf states. In cultiva- 
tion, it is found in the Middle West and on the Atlantic 
seaboard, and is a favorite in central and northern 
Europe. 

The Dwarf Sumach 

R. copallina, Linn. 

The black dwarf, or mountain sumach, is smaller, with 
softer, closer velvet coating its twigs and lining its leaves, 
than the burly staghorn sumach wears. It grows all over 
the eastern half of the United States, even to the foothills 
of the Rocky Mountains, and rises to thirty feet in height 
above a short, stout trunk in the mountains of Tennessee 
and North Carolina. Its leaves are the most beautiful in 
the sumach family. They are six to eight inches long, the 
central stalk bearing nine to twenty-one dark green 
leaflets, lustrous above, lined with silvery pubescence. A 
striking peculiarity is that the central leaf -stem is winged 
on each side with a leafy frill between the pairs of leaflets. 
In autumn, the foliage mass changes to varying shades of 
scarlet and crimson. The flower clusters are copious and 
loose, and the heavy fruits nod from their great weight and 
show the most beautiful shades, ranging from yellow to dull 
red. Sterile soil is often covered by extensive growths of 
this charming shrubby tree which spreads by underground 
root-stocks. It is the latest of all the sumachs to bloom. 

In the South the leaves are sometimes gathered in 
summer to be dried and pulverized for use in tanning 
leather. A yellow dyestufp is also extracted from them. 
It is a favorite sumach for ornamental planting in this 
country and in Europe. 



THE SUMACHS 141 

The Poison Sumach 

R. Vernix, Linn. r 

The poison sumach is a small tree with slender drooping 
branches, smooth, reddish brown, dotted on the twigs 
with orange-colored breathing holes, becoming orange- 
brown and gray as the bark thickens. The trunk is often 
somewhat fluted under a smooth gray rind. This is one 
of the most brilliant and beautiful of all the sumachs, 
but unfortunately it is deadly poisonous, more to be dreaded 
than the poison ivy of our woods, and the poisonwood of 
Florida, both of which are near relatives. By certain 
traits we may always know, with absolute certainty, a 
poison sumach when we find it. Look at the berries. If 
they droop and are grayish white, avoid touching the tree, 
no matter how alluring the wonderful scarlet foliage is. 
Poison sumachs grow only in the swamps. We should sus- 
pect any sumach that stands with its feet in the water, 
whether it bears flowers and fruit or not. The temptation 
is strongest when one is in the woods gathering brilliant 
foliage for decoration of the home for the holidays. The 
bitter poisonous juice that exudes from broken stems turns 
black almost at once. This warning comes late, however, 
for as it dries upon the hands it poisons the skin. Handled 
with care, this juice becomes a black, lustrous, durable 
varnish, but it is not in general use. 

The Smooth Sumach 

R. glabra, Linn. 

The smooth sumach (see illustrations, pages 150-151) is 
quite as familiar as the staghorn, as a roadside shrub. It 



142 TREES 

forms thickets in exactly the same way, and its foliage, flow- 
ers and fruit make it most desirable for decorative planting, 
especially for glorious autumnal effects. The stems are 
smooth and coated with a pale bluish bloom. This is the 
distinguishing mark, at any season, of the sumach that 
often equals the other species in height, but does not be- 
long in this book, for the reason that it never attains the 
stature of a tree. 



THE SMOKE TREE 

A favorite tree in American and European gardens is 
the smoke tree {Cotinus), a genus which has native repre- 
sentatives in both continents. The European C. Cotinus, 
Sarg., was brought to this country by early horticulturists 
and in some respects it is superior to our native C. Ameri- 
canus, Nutt. Cultivation for centuries has given the 
immigrant species greater vigor and hardiness, which 
produces more exuberant growth throughout. Bring in a 
sapling of the native tree and it looks a starveling by 
comparison. 

The glory of the smoke tree is the utter failure of its 
clustered flowers to set seed. Branching terminal panicles 
of minute flowers are held high above the dark green simple 
leaves. As they change in autumn to brilliant shades of 
orange and scarlet, the seed clusters are held aloft. The 
seeds are few but the panicles have expanded and show a 
peculiar feathery development of the bracts that take 
the place of the fruits. The clusters take on tones of 
pink and lavender and in the aggregate they form a 
great cloud made up of graceful, delicate plumes. At 



THE HOLLIES 143 

a little distance the tree appears as if a great cloud 
of rosy smoke rested upon its gorgeous foliage. Or the 
haze may be so pale as to look like mist. This won- 
derful development of the flower cluster is unique among 
garden shrubs and it places Cotinus in a class by itself. 
No garden with a shrubbery border is complete without 
a smoke tree, which is interesting and beautiful at any 
season. 

In its native haunts our American smoke tree is found 
in small isolated groves or thickets, along the sides of 
rocky ravines or dry barren hillsides in Missouri, Okla- 
homa, and Texas, and in eastern Tennessee and northern 
Alabama. 



THE HOLLIES 

The holly family, of five genera, is distributed from the 
north to the south temperate zones, with representation 
in every continent. It includes trees and shrubs of one 
hundred and seventy-five species, seventy of which grow 
in northern Brazil. The dried and powdered leaves of 
two holly trees of Paraguay are commercially known as 
mate, or Paraguay tea, to which the people of South 
America are addicted, as we are to the tea of China. 
" Yerba mate" has a remarkable, stimulating effect upon 
the human system, fortifying it for incredible exertions 
and endurance. Indulged in to excess, it has much the 
effect of alcohol. 

China and Japan have thirty different species of holly. 
America has fourteen, four of which assume tree form; 
the rest are shrubby "winterberries." 






144 TREES 

European Holly 

Ilex aquifolium, Linn. 

The holly of Europe is perhaps the most popular orna- 
mental tree in the world, cultivated in Europe through 
centuries, and now coming to be a favorite garden plant 
wherever hardy in the United States. Some indication 
of its popularity abroad is found in the fact that one 
hundred and fifty-three distinct horticultural varieties 
are in cultivation. The Englishman makes hedges of it, 
and depends upon it to give life and color to his lawn and 
flower borders in the winter. The fellfare or fieldfare, a 
little thrush, feeds upon the tempting red berries in winter; 
but even when these dashes of color are all gone, the 
brilliance of the spiny-margined leaves enlivens any 
landscape. 

Americans know the European holly chiefly through 
importations of the cut branches offered in the markets for 
Christmas decoration. The leaf is small, brilliantly 
polished, and very deeply indented between long, spiny 
tips, giving it a far more decorative quality than the 
native evergreen holly of the South. 

Many varieties of the European holly are found in 
American gardens, particularly near eastern cities. North 
of Washington they must be tied up in straw for the winter, 
and in the latitude of Boston it is a struggle to keep 
them alive. From southern California to Vancouver, 
no such precautions are necessary, and the little trees 
deserve a much wider popularity than they yet enjoy. 
Grown commercially, they are the finest of Christmas 
greens. 



THE HOLLIES 145 

American Holly 
/. Opaca, Ait. 

The American holly also yields its branches for Christ- 
mas greens. In the remotest village in the North one 
may now buy at any grocery store a sprig of red-berried 
holly to usher in the holiday season. The tree is a small 
one at best, slow-growing, pyramidal, twenty to forty 
feet in height, with short, horizontal branches and tough, 
close-grained white wood. It is rare to find so close an 
imitation of ivory, in color and texture, as holly wood 
supplies. It is the delight of the wood engraver, who 
uses it for his blocks. Scroll work and turnery employ it. 
It is used for tool handles, walking-sticks, and whip-stocks. 
Veneer of holly is used in inlay work. 

In southern woods and barren fallow fields where 
hollies grow, collectors, without discrimination, cut many 
trees each autumn, strip them of their branches, and leave 
the trunks to rot upon the ground. The increasing de- 
mand for Christmas holly seriously threatens the present 
supply, for no methods are being practised for its renewal. 
It will not be long before the wood engraver will have to buy 
his blocks by the pound, as he does the eastern boxwood. 

The range of this holly tree extends from southern Maine 
to Florida, throughout the Gulf states, and north into 
Indiana and Missouri. 

Th« Yaupon 

1. vomitoria, Ait. 

The yaupon is a shrubby tree of spreading habit, with 
very small, oval, evergreen leaves and red berries. It 



146 



TREES 



grows from Virginia to Florida and west to Texas and 
Arkansas. A nauseating beverage, made by boiling its 
leaves, was the famous "black drink" of the Indians. A 
yearly ceremonial, in which the whole tribe took part, was 
the persistent drinking of this tea for several days, the 
object being a thorough cleansing of the system. 



PART V 

WILD RELATIVES OF OUR ORCHARD TREES 

The Apples — The Plums — The Cherries — The Haw- 
thorns — The Service-berries — The Hackberries 
— The Mulberries — The Figs — The Papaws — The 
Pond Apples — The Persimmons 

THE APPLES 

The chance apple tree beside the road, with fruit too 
gnarly to eat, is common on roadsides throughout New 
England. Occasionally one of these trees bears edible 
fruit, but this is not the rule. Perhaps the seed thus 
planted was from the core of a very delicious apple, 
nibbled close, and thrown away with regret. But trees 
thus planted are seedlings and seedling apple trees "re- 
vert" to the ancient parent of the race, the wild apple of 
eastern Asia. Horticulture began long ago to improve 
these wild trees, and through the centuries improvement 
and variation have stocked the orchards of all temperate 
countries with the multitude of varieties we know. A visit 
in October to Nova Scotia or to the Yakima Valley in 
Washington, is an eye-opener. Thousands of acres of the 
choicest varieties of this most satisfying of all fruits show 
the debt we owe to patient scientists, whose work has so 
enriched the food supply of the world. 

147 



148 TREES 

The pear, the quince, and the curious medlar, with its 
core exposed at the blossom end — all relatives of the apple — 
trace their lineage to European and Asiatic wild ancestors. 
The Siberian crab, native of northern Asia, is the parent of 
our hard-fleshed, slender-stemmed garden crabapples. 
Japan has given us some wonderful apple trees, with fruit 
no larger than cherries, cultivated solely for their flowers. 
The ornamental flora of America has been greatly enriched 
by these varieties. 

Four native apples are found in American woods. 
Horticulturists have produced new varieties by crossing 
some of these sturdy natives with cultivated apples, or 
their seedling offspring. 

The Prairie Crab 

Malus loensisy Britt. 

The prairie crabapple is the woolly twigged, pink-blos- 
somed wild crab of the woods, from Minnesota and Wis- 
consin to Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. It has crossed 
with the roadside "wilding" trees and produced a hybrid 
known to horticulture as the Soulard apple, from its dis- 
coverer. These wild trees bear fruit that is distinctly an 
improvement upon that of either parent. It is regarded 
as a distinctly promising apple for the coldest of the 
prairie states, and has already become the parent of several 
improved varieties. 

The Wild Crab 

I 

M. coronaria, Mill. 

Throughout the wooded regions, from the Great Lakes 
to Texas and Alabama, the wild crabapple brightens the 



THE PLUMS 140 

spring landscape with its rose-colored, spicy-scented blos- 
soms. The little trees huddle together, their flat tops 
often matted and reaching out sidewise from under the 
shade of the other forest trees. The twigs are crabbed in- 
deed in winter, but they silver over with the young foliage 
in April. The coral flower buds sprinkle the new leaves, 
and through May a great burst of rose-colored bloom 
overspreads the tree-tops. It is not sweetness merely 
that these flowers exhale, but an exquisite, spicy, 
stimulating fragrance, by which one always remembers 
them. 

The pioneers made jellies and preserves out of the little 
green apples {see illustrations , "pages 150-151) , which lost 
some of their acrid quality by hanging on until after a good 
frost. There are those who still gather these fruits as their 
parents and grandparents did. In their opinion the wild 
tang and the indescribable piquancy of flavor in jellies 
made from this fruit are unmatched by those of any other 
fruit that grows. 

THE PLUMS 

The genus prunus belongs to the rose family and in- 
cludes shrubs and trees with stone fruits. Of the over 
one hundred species, thirty are native to North Amer- 
ica; but ten of them assume tree form, and all but one 
are small trees. Related to them are the garden cherries 
and plums, native to other countries, and the peach, the 
apricot, and the almond, found in this country only in hor- 
ticultural varieties. The wood of prunus is close-grained, 
solid, and durable, and a few of the species are important 
timber trees. The simplest way to identify a member of 



150 TREES 

the genus is to break a twig at any season of the year and 
taste the sap. If it is bitter and astringent with hydro- 
cyanic acid (the flavor we get in fresh peach-pits and bitter 
almonds), we may be sure we have run the tree down to the 
genus prunus. 



The Wild Red Plum 

Prunus Americanus, Marsh. 

The wild red or yellow plum forms dense thickets in moist 
woods and along river banks from New York to Texas and 
Colorado. Its leafless, gnarled, and thorny twigs are 
covered in spring with dense clusters of white bloom, 
honey-sweet in fragrance, a carnival of pleasure and profit 
to bees and other insects. In hot weather this nectar 
often ferments and sours before the blossoms fall. The 
abundant dry pollen is scattered by the wind. The plum 
crop depends more upon wind than upon insects, for the 
pollination period is very brief. 

After the frost in early autumn, the pioneers of the 
prairie used always to make a holiday in the woods and 
bring home by wagon-loads the spicy, acid plums which 
crowded the branches and fairly lit up the thicket with the 
orange and red color of their puckery, thick skins. In a 
land where fruit orchards were newly planted, "plum 
butter " made from the fruit of nature's orchards was grate- 
fully acceptable through the long winters. Even when 
home-grown sorghum molasses was the only available 
sweetening, the healthy appetites of prairie boys and girls 
accepted this "spread" on the bread and butter of noon- 
day school lunches, as a matter of course. 




See page ISO 
FLOWERS, FRUIT, AND ODD LEAF PATTERNS OF THE 
s \ss\fi; \s TREE 



THE PLUMS 151 

The Canada Plum 

P. nigra., Ait. 

The Canada plum (see illustration, page 151) whose range 
dips down into the northern tier of states, is so near like the 
previous species as to be called by Waugh a mere variety. 
Its leaves are broad and large, and the flowers and fruit 
larger, A peculiarity of blossoming time is that the 
petals turn pink before they fall. This tree furnished the 
settler with a relish for his hard fare, and the horticulturist 
a hardy stock on which to graft scions of tenderer and better 
varieties of plums. It is a tree well worth bringing in from 
the woods to set in a bare fence-corner that will be beauti- 
fied by the blossoms in spring, and in late summer by the 
bright orange-colored fruit against the ruddy foliage. 

Exotic plums have greatly enriched our horticulture, 
giving us fruits that vie with the peach in size and luscious- 
ness. In New-England gardens, the damsons, green gages 
and big red plums are imported varieties of the woolly 
twigged, thick-leaved European, P. domestica, which re- 
fused utterly to feel at home on its own roots in the great 
middle prairies of the country. These European plums 
have found a congenial home in the mild climate of the 
West Coast. 

Japan has furnished to the Middle West and South a 
hardy, prolific species, P. triflora, generally immune to the 
black knot, a fungous disease which attacks native plums. 
Crosses between the Japanese and American native plums 
promise well. California now ranks first in prune raising 
as an industry, with France a close second. Prunes are the 
dried fruit of certain sweet, fleshy kinds of plums. Many 



152 



TREES 



cultivated varieties of Japanese plums have enriched the 
horticulture of our West Coast. 

The almond, now grown commercially in California, is 
the one member of the genus prunus whose flesh is dry and 
woody, and whose pit is a commercial nut. 



THE CHERRIES 

Small-fruited members of the genus prunus, wild and 
cultivated, are grouped under the popular name, cherries, 
by common consent. The pie cherry of New-England gar- 
dens is prunus cerasus, Linn. It often runs wild from gar- 
dens, forming roadside thickets, with small sour red fruits, 
as nearly worthless as at home in the wilds of Europe and 
Asia. This tree has, through cultivation, given rise to 
two groups of sour cherries cultivated in America. The 
early, light-red varieties, with uncolored juice, of which the 
Early Richmond is a familiar type, and the late, dark-red 
varieties, with colored juice, of which the English Morello 
is the type. 

The sweet cherry of Europe (P. Avium, Linn.) has given 
us our cultivated sweet cherries, whose fruit is more or less 
heart-shaped. 

Japan celebrates each spring the festival of cherry blos- 
som time, a great national fete, when the gardens burst 
suddenly into the marvelous bloom oi'Sakura, the cherry 
tree, symbol of happiness, in which people of all classes de- 
light. The native species (P. pseudo-Cerasus), has been 
cultivated by Japanese artist-gardeners in the one direction 
of beauty for centuries. Not in flowers alone, but in leaf, 
in branching habit, and even in bark, beauty has been the 



THE CHERRIES 



153 



ideal toward which patience and skill have striven success- 
fully. "Spring is the season of the eye," says the Japan- 
ese poet. Of all their national flower holidays, cherry 
blossom time, in the third month, is the climax. 

The Wild Cherry 

Prunus Pennsylvanica, Linn. 

The wild red, bird, or pin cherry grows in rocky woods, 
forming thickets and valuable nurse trees to hardwoods, 
from Newfoundland to Georgia, and west to the Rocky 
Mountains. The birds enjoy the ruddy little fruits and 
hold high carnival in June among the shining leaves. 
Many an ugly ravine is clothed with verdure and whitened 
with nectar-laden flowers by this comparatively worthless, 
short-lived tree; and in many burnt-over districts, the bird- 
sown pits strike root, and the young trees render a distinct 
service to forestry by this young growth, which is gone by 
the time the pines and hardwoods it has nursed require the 
ground for their spreading roots. 



The Wild Black Cherry 

P. serotina, Ehrh. 

The wild black cherry or rum cherry {see illustration, page 
166), is the substantial lumber tree of the genus, whose 
ponderous trunk furnishes cherry wood, vying with mahog- 
any and rosewood in the esteem of the cabinet-maker, who 
uses cherry for veneer oftener than for solid furniture. 

The drug trade depends upon this tree for a tonic de- 
rived from its bark, roots, and fruit. Cherry brandies, 
cordials, and cherry bounce, that good old-fashioned home- 



154 TREES 

brewed beverage, are made from the heavy-clustered fruits 
that hang until late summer, turning black and losing 
their astringency when dead ripe. 

From Ontario to Dakota, and south to Florida and 
Texas, this tree is found, reaching its best estate in moist, 
rich soil, but climbing mountain canyons at elevations 
of from five to seven thousand feet. A worthy shade and 
park tree, the black cherry is charmingly unconventional, 
carrying its mass of drooping foliage with the grace of a 
willow, its satiny brown bark curling at the edges of 
irregular plates like that of the cherry birch. 

The Choke Cherry 
P. Virginiana, Linn. 

The choke cherry is a miniature tree no higher than a 
thrifty lilac bush, from the Eastern states to the Mississippi, 
but between Nebraska and northern Texas it reaches 
thirty-five feet in height. The trunk is always short, 
often crooked or leaning, and never exceeds one foot 
in diameter. Its shiny bark, long racemed flowers and 
fruit, and the pungent odor of its leaves and bark might 
lead one to confuse it with a black cherry sapling. But 
there is a marked difference between the two species. 
The choke cherry's odor is not only pungent, but rank 
and disagreeable besides. The leaf of the choke cherry 
is a wide and abruptly pointed oval. The fruit until 
dead ripe is red or yellow, and so puckery, harsh, and 
bitter that children, who eat the black cherries eagerly, 
cannot be persuaded to taste choke cherries a second time. 

Birds are not so fastidious; they often strip the trees 
before the berries darken. It is probably by these un- 



THE HAWTHORNS 155 

conscious agents of seed distribution that choke-cherry 
pits are scattered. From the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of 
Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains 
this worthless little choke cherry is found in all wooded 
regions. 

THE HAWTHORNS 

In the same rose family with apples, plums, cherries, and 
service-berries is listed the genus Crataegus, a shrubby race 
of trees, undersized as a rule, with stiff, zigzag branches 
set with thorns. Over one hundred species have been 
described by Charles Sargent in his "Manual of Trees of 
North America," published in 1905. 

The centre of distribution for the hawthorn is undoubt- 
edly the eastern United States. From Newfoundland 
the woods are full of them. A few species belong to the 
Rocky Mountain region, a few to the states farther west. 
Europe and Asia each has a few native hawthorns. 

The English Hawthorn 

Crataegus oxyacantha, Linn. 

The English hawthorn is the best-known species in the 
world. When it first came into cultivation, no man knows. 
Englishmen will tell you it has always formed the hedge- 
rows of the countryside. This is the "blossoming May." 
The sweetness of its flowers, snowy white, or pink, or 
rose-colored, turns rural England into a garden, while 
linnets and skylarks fill the green lanes with music. 

American "forests primeval" were swept with the 
woodman's axe before the hawthorns had their chance to 
assert themselves sufficiently to attract the attention of 



156 



TREES 



botanists and horticulturists. The showy flowers and 
fruits, the vivid coloring of autumn foliage, and the^strik- 
ing picturesqueness of the bare tree, with its rigid branches 
armed with menacing thorns, give most of these little 
trees attractiveness at any season. They grow in any 
soil and in any situation, and show the most remarkable 
improvement when cultivated. Their roots thrive in 
heavy clay. When young the little trees may be easily 
transplanted from the wild. They come readily from 
seed, though in most species the seed takes two years to 
germinate. 

With few exceptions, the flowers of our hawthrons are 
pure white, perfect, their parts in multiples of five — a 
family trait. Each flower is a miniature white rose. 
Rounded corymbs of these flowers on short side twigs 
cover the tree with a robe of white after the leaves appear. 
In autumn little fleshy fruits that look like apples, cluster 
on the twigs. Inside the thick skin, the flesh is mealy 
and sweetish around a few hard nutlets that contain the 
seed. As a rule, the fruits are red. In a few species they 
are orange; in still fewer, yellow, blue, or black. 

It is not practicable to describe the many varieties of our 
native hawthorns in a volume of the scope of this one. 
A few of the most distinctive species only can be included, 
but no one will ever confuse a hawthorn with any other 
tree. 

The Cockspur Thorn 

C. Crus-galli, Linn. 

The cockspur thorn is a small, handsome tree, fifteen 
to twenty feet high, with stiff branches in a broad round 
head. The thorns on the sides of the twig are three to 



THE HAWTHORNS 157 

four inches long, sometimes when old becoming branched* 
and reaching a length of six or eight inches. Stout and 
brown or gray, they often curve, striking downward as a 
rule, on the horizontal branches. The leaves, thick, 
leathery, lustrous, dark green above, pale beneath, one to 
four inches long, taper to a short stout stalk, seeming to 
stand on tiptoe, as if to keep out of the way of the thorns. 
From the ground up, the tree is clothed in bark that is 
bright and polished, shading from reddish brown to gray. 
The flowers come late, in showy clusters; and the fruit 
gleams red against the reddening leaves. As winter 
comes on the leaves fall and the branches are brightened 
by the fruit clusters which are not taken by the birds (see 
illustration, page 167). All the year long the cockspur 
thorn is a beautiful, ornamental tree and a competent 
hedge plant, popular alike in Europe and America. 

The Scarlet Haw 
C. pruinosa, K. Koch. 

The scarlet haw found from Vermont to Georgia, and 
west to Missouri, prefers limestone soil of mountain slopes, 
and is more picturesque than beautiful. The foliage is 
distinctive; it is dark, blue-green, smooth, and leathery, 
pale beneath, and turns in autumn to brilliant orange. 
In summer the pale fruit wears a pale bloom but at ma- 
turity it is dark purplish red and shiny. 

The Red Haw 

C. mollis, Scheele 

The red haw is the type of a large group, ample in size, 
fine in form and coloring, of fruit and foliage. This tree 



158 TREES 

reaches forty feet in height, its round head rising above 
the tall trunk, with stout branchlets and stubby, shiny 
thorns. 

The twigs are coated with pale hairs, the young leaves, 
and ultimately the leaf -linings and petioles are hairy, and 
the fruits are downy, marked with dark dots. 

The only fault the landscape gardener can find with 
this red haw, is that its abundant fruit, ripe in late sum- 
mer, falls in September. The species is found from Ohio 
to Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. 

The Scarlet Haw 
C. coccinea, Linn. 

The scarlet haw, native of the Northeastern states, is one 
of the oldest native thorns in cultivation. It is a favorite 
in New England gardens, because of its abundant bloom, 
deep crimson fruit and vivid autumn foliage. It is a 
shrubby, round-headed tree, with stout ascending 
branches, set with thorns an inch or more in length. 

The Black Haw 

C. Douglasii, Lindl. 

In the West the black haw is a round-headed, native tree 
found from Puget Sound southward through California 
and eastward to Colorado and New Mexico. It is a 
round-headed tree reaching forty feet in height, in moist 
soil. Its distinguishing feature is the black fruit, ripe in 
August and September, lustrous, thin-fleshed, sweet, one- 
half an inch long. The thorns are stout and sharp, rarely 
exceeding one inch in length. The leathery dark-green 



THE SERVICE-BERRIES 159 

leaves, one to four inches long, commend this black-fruited 
thorn of the West to the Eastern horticulturists. It has 
proved hardy in gardens to the Atlantic seaboard and in 
Nova Scotia. 



THE SERVICE-BERRIES 

A small genus of pretty, slender trees related to apples, 
and in the rose family, has representatives in every conti- 
nent of the Northern Hemisphere, and also in North Africa. 
Their natural range is greatly extended by the efforts of 
horticulturists, for the trees are among the best flowering 
species. 

The Service-berry 

Amelanchier Canadensis, T. & G. 

The Eastern service-berry, June-berry, or shad-bush, is 
often seen in parks and on lawns; its delicate, purple- 
brown branches covered in April, before the oval leaves ap- 
pear, with loose, drooping clusters of white flowers. (See 
illustration, page 182.) Under each is a pair of red silky bracts 
and the infant leaves are red and silky, all adding their 
warmth of color when the tree is white with bloom. The 
blossoms pass quickly, just about the time the shad run up 
the rivers to spawn. We may easily trace this common 
name to the early American colonists who frugally fished 
the streams when the shad were running, and noted the 
charming little trees lighting up the river banks with their 
delicate blossoms, when all the woods around them were 
still asleep. In June the juicy red berries call the birds to 
a feast. Then the little tree quite loses its identity, for the 



160 TREES 

forest is roofed with green, and June-berries are quite over- 
shadowed by more self-assertive species. 

The borders of woods in rich upland soil, fron New- 
foundland to the Dakotas and south to the Gulf, are the 
habitat and range of this charming little tree. 

The Western Service-berry 

A. alnifolia, Nutt. 

The Western service-berry grows over a vast territory 
which extends from the Yukon River south through the 
Coast Ranges to northern California and eastward to Man- 
itoba and northern Michigan. In the rich bottom lands 
of the lower Columbia River, and on the prairies about 
Puget Sound, it reaches twenty feet in height, and its 
nutritious, pungent fruits are gathered in quantities and 
dried for winter food by the Indians. Indeed, the horti- 
culturists consider this large juicy fine-flavored, black 
berry quite worthy of cultivation, as it grows in the wild to 
one inch in diameter — the average size of wild plums. 



THE HACKBERRIES 

Fifty or sixty tropical and temperate-zone species of 
hackberries include two North American trees which have 
considerable value for shade and ornamental planting. 
One hardy Japanese species has been introduced; three 
exotic species are in cultivation in the South. One is from 
South Africa, a second from the Mediterranean basin, and 
a third from the Orient. 

It is easy to mistake the hackberry for an elm; the habits 
of the two trees lead the casual observer astray. The leaf 



THE HACKBERRIES 161 

is elm-like, though smaller and brighter green than the foli- 
age of the American elm. A peculiarity of the foliage is 
the apparent division of the petiole into three main ribs, in- 
stead of a single midrib. At base, the leaves are always 
unsymmetrical. The bark is broken into thick ridges set 
with warts, separated by deep fissures. 

The absence of terminal buds induces a forking habit, 
which makes the branches of a hackberry tree gnarled and 
picturesque. The hackberry is not familiarly known by 
the inhabitants of the regions where it grows, else it 
would more commonly be transplanted to adorn private 
grounds and to shade village streets. 

The Hackberry 

Celtis occidentalism Linn. 

The hackberry reaches one hundred and twenty-five feet 
in height in moist soil along stream borders or in marshes. 
It is distributed from Nova Scotia to Puget Sound, and 
south to Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, and New 
Mexico. The beauty of its graceful crown is sometimes 
marred by a fungus which produces a thick tufting of twigs 
on the ends of branches. The name, "witches' brooms' ' 
has been given to these tufts. Growths of similar appear- 
ance and the same name are produced by insect injury 
on some other trees. 

The fruit of the hackberry is an oblong, thin-fleshed 
iweet berry, purple in color, one fourth to one half inch 
long. It dries about the solitary seed and hangs on the 
tree all winter, to the great satisfaction of the birds. {See 
•illustration, page 1S3.) 

Emerson says: "The wood is used for the shafts and 



162 TREES 

axle-trees of carriages, the naves of wheels, and for musical 
instruments. The root is used for dyeing yellow, the bark 
for tanning, and an oil is expressed from the stones of the 
fruit." 

The best use we can make of the hackberry tree is to 
plant it for shade and ornament. It is easily transplanted, 
for the roots are shallow and fibrous, so that well-grown 
trees may be moved in winter time. The autumn yellow 
of the foliage is wonderfully cheerful, and the warty bark, 
checked into small thick plates, is interesting at any sea- 
son. 

European Nettle Tree 

0. Australia 

The European nettle tree is supposed to have been the 
famous "lotus" of classical literature. Homer tells of the 
lotus-eaters who, when they tasted the sweet fruit, straight- 
way forgot their native land or could not be persuaded to 
return. This innocent tree, against which the charge has 
never been proved, bears a better reputation for the 
qualities of its wood. It is as hard as box or holly, and 
as beautiful as satin-wood when polished. Figures of 
saints and other images are carved out of it. Hay-forks 
are made of its supple limbs. Rocky worthless land is set 
apart by law in some countries for the growing of these 
trees. Suckers from the roots make admirable ramrods, 
coach- whip stocks and walking-sticks. Shafts and axle- 
trees of carriages are made of the larger shoots; oars and 
hoops are supplied from these coppiced trees. From 
northern Africa, throughout Europe, and on to India, the 
tree is planted for shade, and its foliage is used as fodder 
for cattle. 



> 



THE MULBERRIES 



THE MULBERRIES 



The mulberry family includes fifty-five genera and 
nearly a thousand species of temperate-zone and tropical 
plants. The genus ficus alone includes six hundred species. 
Hemp, important for its fibrous, inner bark, and the hop 
vine are well known herbaceous members of the mulberry 
family, which stands botanically between the elms and the 
nettles — strange company, it would seem, but justified by 
fundamental characteristics. Three genera of this family 
have tree forms in America — the mulberry, the Osage 
orange, and the fig. Two native mulberries and three 
exotic species are widely cultivated for their fruit, their 
wood, and as ornamental trees. Weeping mulberries are 
among the most popular horticultural forms. 

The Red Mulberry 

Morus rubra, Linn. 

The red mulberry grows to be a large dense, round-headed 
tree, with thick fibrous roots and milky sap. Its alternate 
leaves, three to five inches long, are variable in form, often 
irregularly lobed, very veiny, usually rough, blue-green 
above, pale and pubescent beneath, turning yellow in early 
autumn. The inconspicuous flower spikes are succeeded 
by fleshy aggregate fruits like a blackberry, sweet, juicy, 
dark purple or red, each individual fruit single-seeded. 
Birds and boys alike throng the trees through the long 
period during which these berries ripen. They are hardly 
worthy to rank with the cultivated mulberries as a fruit 
tree. But planted in poultry yards and hog pastures the 



164 TREES 

dropping fruits are eagerly devoured by the ^J^ants of 
these enclosures. 

The chief value of the tree lies in the durability of its 
orange-yellow wood, which, though coarse-grained, soft and 
weak, is very durable in the soil and in contact with water. 
Hence it has always commended itself to fence- and boat- 
builder. It is sometimes planted for ornament, but its 
dropping fruit is a strong objection to it as a street or lawn 
tree. 

One of the mulberry's chief characteristics is its tenacity 
to life. Its seeds readily germinate and cuttings, whether 
from roots or twigs, strike root quickly. Indians dis- 
covered that rope could be made out of the bast fibre of 
mulberry bark. They even wove a coarse cloth out of the 
same material. The early settlers of Virginia, who found 
the red mulberry growing there in great abundance, 
dreamed in vain of silk culture as an industry based upon 
this native tree. Their hopes were not realized. Silk 
culture has never yet become a New- World industry. 

The White Mulberry 

M. alba, Linn. 

The white mulberry is a native of northern China and 
Japan. From this region it has been extensively intro- 
duced into all warm temperate climates. Its white 
berries are of negligible character. It is the leaves that 
give this oriental mulberry a unique position in the econo- 
mic world. They are the chosen food of silkworms. No 
substitute has ever robbed this tree of its preeminence, 
maintained for many centuries in its one field of useful- 
ness. 



THE FIGS 165 

The hardy Russian mulberries are derived from M . alba. 
These have done much to enrich the horticulture of our 
Northern states, but the parent tree, though it thrives in 
the eastern United States and in the South, has not been 
the means of establishing silk culture on a paying basis 
in this country. 

The Black Mulberry 

M. nigra, Linn. 

The black mulberry, probably a native of Persia, has 
large, dark red, juicy fruits, for which it is extensively 
cultivated in Europe. In this country it is hardy only in 
the Southern and the Pacific Coast states. It is the best 
fruit tree of its family, yet no mulberry is able to take 
rank among profitable fruit trees. The fruits are too sweet 
and soft, and they lack piquancy of flavor. They ripen a 
few at a time and are gathered by shaking the trees. 

The dark green foliage of the black mulberry gives 
ample shade throughout the season. Planted in the 
garden or in the border of the lawn where no walk will 
be defaced by the dropping fruits, the mulberry is a par- 
ticularly desirable tree because it attracts some of our 
most desirable song-birds to build on the premises. 
Given a mulberry tree and a bird-bath near by, and the 
smallest city lot becomes a bird sanctuary through the 
summer and a wayside inn for transients during the 
two migratory seasons. 

THE FIGS 

The genus ficus belongs to all tropical countries, and 
this remarkable range accounts for the six hundred differ- 



166 TREES 

ent species botanists have identified. The rubber plant, 
popular in this country as a pot and tub plant, is one of the 
best-known species. In its East Indian forest home it is 
the "Assam Rubber Tree." It may begin life as an air 
plant, fixing its roots in the crotch of another tree, in 
which a chance seed has lodged. A shock of aerial roots 
strikes downward and reaches the ground. After this the 
tree depends upon food drawn from the earth. The sup- 
porting host tree is no longer needed. The young rubber 
tree has by this time a trunk stiff enough to stand alone. 

Assam rubber, which ranks in the market with the best 
Brazilian crude rubber, comes from the sap of this wild 
fig tree, Ficus elasticus. Clip off a twig of your leathery- 
leaved rubber plant and note the sticky white sap that 
exudes. In the highest priced automobile tires you find 
the manufactured product. 

Dried figs have always been an important commercial 
fruit. These imported figs are from trees that are horti- 
cultural varieties of a wild Asiatic species, Ficus Carica. 
Smyrna figs are best for drying. They form a delicious, 
wholesome sweet, which has high food value and is more 
wholesome than candy for children. Tons of this dried 
fruit are imported each year from the countries east of 
the Mediterranean Sea. Now California is growing 
Smyrna figs successfully. 

The banyan tree of India is famous, striking its aerial 
rootlets downward until they reach the ground and take 
root, and thus help support the giant, horizontal limbs. 
These amazing trees, members of the genus ficus, some- 
times extend to cover an acre or more of ground. To walk 
under one is like entering the darkness of a forest of young 
trees. By the clearing away of most of these aerial 




See page /■» , 
FLOWERS \\l> FRUIT OF THE WILD BLACK CHERRY 




See page 156 
A FRUITING BRANCH OF THE COCKSPUR THORN 



THE PAPAWS 167 

branches, a great arbor is made for the comfort of people 
in regions where the sun's rays are overpowering in the 
middle of the day. 

Our own fig trees in North America are but sprawling 
parasitic trees, unable to stand alone. They are found 
only in the south of Florida, and therefore are generally 
unknown. 

The Golden Fig 

Ficus aurea, Nutt. 

The golden fig climbs up other trees and strangles its 
host with its coiling stems and aerial roots. One far- 
famed specimen has grown and spread like a banyan tree, 
its trunk and head supported by secondary stems that 
have struck downward from the branches. Smooth as a 
beech in bark, crowned with glossy, beautiful foliage, like 
the rubber plants, this parasitic fig is a splendid tropical 
tree, but the host that supports all this luxuriance is 
sacrificed utterly. The little yellow figs that snuggle in 
the axils of the leaves turn purple, sweet, and juicy as they 
ripen. They are sometimes used in making preserves. 
An interesting characteristic of the wood of the golden 
fig is its wonderful lightness. Bulk for bulk, it is only 
one fourth as heavy as water. 



THE PAPAWS 

Two of the forty-eight genera of the tropical custard- 
apple family are represented by a solitary species each in 
the warmer parts of the United States. Important fruit 
and ornamental trees in the tropics of the Old World are 



168 TREES 

included in this family, but their New- World representa- 
tives are not the most valuable. However, they have a 
sufficient number of family traits to look foreign and 
interesting among our more commonplace forest trees; 
and because their distribution is limited they are not 
generally recognized in gardens, where they are planted 
more for curiosity than for ornament. 

The Papaw 

Asimina triloba, Dunal. 

The papaw has the family name, custard-apple, from 
its unusual fruit, whose flesh is soft and yellow, like cus- 
tard. The shape suggests that of a banana. The fruits 
hang in clusters and their pulp is enclosed in thick dark 
brown skin, wrinkled, sometimes shapeless, three to 
five inches long. Dead ripe, the flesh becomes almost 
transparent, fragrant, sweet, rather insipid, surrounding 
flat, wrinkled seeds an inch long. The fruit is gathered 
and sold in local markets from forests of these papaws 
which grow under taller trees in the alluvial bottom lands 
of the Mississippi Valley. In summer the leaves are 
tropical-looking, having single blades eight to twelve 
inches long, four to five inches broad, on short, thick 
stalks. These leaves are set alternately upon the twig, 
and cluster in whorls on the ends of branches. The flowers 
appear with the leaves and would escape notice but for 
their abundance and the unusual color of their three 
large membranous petals. At first these axillary blossoms 
are as green as the leaves; gradually the dark pigment over- 
comes the green, and the color passes through shades of 
brownish green to dark rich wine-red. The full-grown 



THE PAPAWS 169 

foliage by midsummer has become very thin in texture, 
and lined with pale bloom. The tree throughout exhales 
a sickish, disagreeable odor. The fruit is improved in 
flavor by hanging until it gets a nip of frost. 

This "wild banana tree" is the favorite fruit tree of 
the negroes in the Black Belt. Its hardiness is surprising. 
From the Southern states, it ranges north into Kansas, 
Michigan, New York, and New Jersey. 

The Melon Papaw 

]Carica Papaya, Linn. 

The melon papaw does not belong to the custard-apple 
family, but it grows in southern Florida and throughout 
the West Indies, and has the name of our little "wild 
banana tree," so it may as well have mention here, as it 
is the sole representative of the true Papaw family, and 
it is universally cultivated for its fruit in the warm regions 
of the world. By selection the fruit has been improved 
until it ranks as one of the most wholesome and important 
of all the fruits in the tropics. In Florida the papaw 
grows on the rich hummocks along the Indian River, and 
on the West Coast southward from Bay Biscayne. It 
is very common on all the West Indian Islands. It grows 
like a palm, with tall stem crowned by huge simple leaves, 
one to two feet across, deeply lobed into three main divi- 
sions, and each lobe irregularly cut by narrow sinuses. 
The veins are very thick and yellow, and the hollow leaf- 
stalks lengthen to three or four feet. The bark of this 
tree is silvery white — a striking contrast with the lustrous 
head of foliage. The flowers are waxy, tubular, fragrant, 
turning their yellow petals backward in a whorl. On fer- 



170 TREES 

tile trees the fruits mature into great melons, sometimes 
as large as a man's head; but these are the cultivated 
varieties. Wild papaws rarely exceed four inches long, 
and usually they are smaller. When full grown the fruit 
turns to bright orange-yellow. The succulent pulp 
separates easily from the round seeds. 

In the West Indies, the trees often branch and attain 
much greater size than in Florida, where fifteen feet is 
the maximum, in the wilds. 

The leaves of this papaw contain, in their abundant 
sap, a solvent, papain, which has the property of destroy- 
ing the connective tissue in meats. They are bruised by 
the natives and tough meat, wrapped closely in them, 
becomes tender in a few hours. The fruits are eaten raw 
and made into preserves. Negroes use the leaves also as a 
substitute for soap in the washing of clothes. 



THE POND APPLES 

The pond apple (Anona glabra, Linn.) is our only rep- 
resentative of its genus that reaches tree form and size, 
and it is the second of our native custard-apples. It 
comes to us via the West Indies, and reaches no farther 
north than the swamps of southern Florida. It is a 
familiar tree on the Bahama Islands. Thirty to forty 
feet high, the broad head rises from a short trunk, less 
than two feet in diameter, but very thick compared with 
the wide-spreading, contorted branches and slender branch- 
lets. It is often buttressed at the base. The leaves 
are oval and pointed, rarely more than four inches long, 
bright green, leathery, paler on the lower surface, plain- 



THE POND APPLES 171 

margined. The flowers in April form pointed, triangular 
boxes by the touching of the tips of the yellowish white 
petals, whose inner surfaces near the base have a bright 
red spot. 

The fruit, which ripens in November, is somewhat heart- 
shaped, four to six inches long, compound like a mulberry. 
The smooth custard-like flesh forms a luscious mass be- 
tween the fibrous core and the surface, studded with the 
hard seeds. Fragrant and sweet, these wild pond apples 
have small merit as fruit. Little effort has been made to 
improve the species horticulturally. Its rival species in 
the West Indies have a tremendous lead which they are 
likely to keep. 

The Cherimoya 

Anona Cherimolia, Mill. 

The cherimoya, native of the highlands of Central 
America, has long been cultivated, and its fruit has been 
classed, with the pineapple and the mangosteen, as one of 
the three finest fruits in the world. Certainly it deserves 
high rank among the fruits of the tropics. This also has 
been introduced into cultivation in southern Florida, but 
its culture has assumed much more importance in Califor- 
nia, where it seems to feel quite at home. 

The tree is a handsome one, with broad velvety bright 
green leaves, deciduous during the winter months. It 
grows wherever the orange is hardy, and its fruit, heart- 
shaped or oval, green or brown, is about the size of a navel 
orange. Conical protuberances cover the surface and 
enclose a mass of white, custard-like pulp, with the flavor 
of the pineapple, in which are imbedded twenty or thirty 



♦172 TREES 

brown seeds. A taste for this tropical pond apple is as 
easily acquired as for the pineapple, which has become uni- 
versally popular. Every garden in the Orange Belt should 
have a cherimoya tree for ornament and for its fruit. 



THE PERSIMMONS 

The persimmon tree of the Southern woods belongs to 
the ebony family, which contains some important fruit and 
lumber trees, chiefly confined to the genus diospyros, 
which has two representatives among the trees of North 
America. Doubtless a chmate of longer summers would 
enable our persimmon trees to produce wood as hard as 
the ebony of commerce, whose black heart- wood and thick 
belt of soft yellow sap-wood are the products of five different 
tropical species of the genus — two from India, one from 
Africa, one from Malaysia and one from Mauritius. The 
beautiful, variegated wood called coromandel is produced 
by a species of ebony that grows in Ceylon. 

Fossil remains of persimmon trees are found in the 
miocene rocks of Greenland and Alaska, and in the later 
cretaceous beds uncovered in Nebraska. These prove 
that diospyros once had a much wider range than now, ex- 
tending through temperate to arctic regions, whereas now 
our two persimmons and the Chinese and Japanese species, 
are the only representatives outside the tropics. 

The Persimmon 

Diospysos Virginiana, Linn. 

The persimmon will never be forgotten by the North- 
erner who chances to visit his Virginia cousins in the early 



THE PERSIMMONS 175 

autumn. Strolling through the woods he notes among 
other unfamiliar trees a tall shaft covered with black bark, 
deeply checked into squarish plates. The handsome round 
head, held well aloft, bears a shock of angular twigs and 
among the glossy, orange-red leaves hang fruits the size 
and shape of his Northern crabapples. The rich orange- 
red makes it extremely attractive, and the enthusiasm 
with which the entire population regards the approaching 
persimmon harvest focuses his interest likewise upon this 
unknown Southern fruit. He is eager to taste it without 
delay, and usually there is no one to object. Forthwith he 
climbs the tree, or beats a branch with a long pole until a 
good specimen is obtained. Its thin skin covers the mel- 
low flesh — but the first bite is not followed by a second. 
The fruit is so puckery that it almost strangles one. 

But after the frosts and well on into the winter the per- 
simmons grow more sweet, juicy, and delicious, and lose all 
their bitterness and astringency. To find a few of these 
sugary morsels in the depths of the woods at the end of a 
long day's hunting is a reward that offsets all disappoint- 
ments of an empty bag. No fruit could be more utterly 
satisfying to a dry-mouthed, leg-weary, hungry boy. 

The opossum is the chief competitor of the local negro 
in harvesting the persimmon crop. Individual trees differ 
in the excellence of their fruit. These special trees are 
"spotted" months before the crop is fit to eat. It would 
seem as if the opossums camp under the best persimmon 
trees and take an unfair advantage, because they are 
nocturnal beasts and have nothing to do but watch and 
wait. One thing solaces the negro, when he sees the harvest 
diminish through the unusual industry and appetite of his 
bright-eyed, rat-tailed rival. He knows what brush-pile 



174 TREES 

or hollow tree shelters the opossom, while he sleeps by 
day. Every persimmon the opossom steals helps to make 
him fat and tender for the darkey's Thanksgiving feast, so 
it is only a question of patience and strategy to recoup his 
losses by feasting on his fat 'possum neighbor, and to boast 
to the friends who join him at the feast, of the contest of 
wits at which he came off victorious. 

In summer time a persimmon tree is handsome in its 
oval pointed leaves, often six inches long, with pale linings. 
The flowers that appear in axillary clusters on the sterile 
trees are small, yellowish green and inconspicuous. On 
the fertile trees the flowers are solitary and axillary. The 
fruit is technically a berry, containing one to eight seeds. 

The following first impressions of persimmons in Vir- 
ginia woods are from the pen of a traveler in the early part 
of the seventeenth century, whom Pocahontas might have 
introduced to a fruit well known to the Indians : 

"They have a plumb which they call pessemmins, like to 
a medler, in England, but of a deeper tawnie cullour; they 
grow on a most high tree. When they are not fully ripe, 
they are harsh and choakie, and furre in a man's mouth 
like allam, howbeit, being taken fully ripe, yt is a reason- 
able pleasant fruiet, somewhat lushious. I have seen our 
people put them into their baked and sodden puddings; 
there be whose tast allows them to be as pretious as the 
English apricock; I confess it is a good kind of horse 
plumb." 

" 'Simmon beer" and brandy are made from the fruit, 
and its seeds are roasted to use when coffee is scarce. 
The inner bark of the tree has tonic properties, and the 
country folk use it for the allaying of intermittent fevers. 
The wood is used in turnery, for shoe lasts, plane stocks 



THE PERSIMMONS 175 

and shuttles. It is a peculiarity of the persimmon tree 
that almost one hundred layers of pale sap-wood, the 
growth of as many years, lie outside of the black heart- 
wood, upon which the reputation of ebony rests. 

The Japanese Persimmon 

Kaki 

The native persimmon of Japan has been developed into 
an important horticultural fruit. China also has species 
that are fruit trees of merit. In the fruit stalls of all 
American cities, the Japanese persimmon is found in its 
season, the smooth, orange-red skin, easily mistaken for 
that of a tomato as the fruits lie in their boxes. The 
pointed cones differ in form, however, and the soft mellow 
flesh, with its melon-like seeds and leathery calyx at 
base, mark this fruit as still a novelty in the East. 

In southern California no garden is complete without a 
Japanese persimmon tree to give beauty by its cheerful, 
leathery, green leaves and its rich-colored fruits. But the 
beginner will establish a grave personal prejudice against 
this fruit unless he wait until it is dead ripe, for it has the 
astringent qualities of its genus. No fruit is more delicate 
in flavor than a thoroughly ripe kaki, so soft that it must be 
eaten with a spoon. 

The Department of Agriculture at Washington has 
established a number of varieties of these oriental fruit 
trees in the warmer parts of the United States. Our 
native persimmons are being used as stock upon which to 
graft the exotics. A distinct addition to the fruits of this 
country has thus been made and the public is fast learning 
to enjoy the luscious, wholesome Japanese persimmons. 



PART VI 

THE POD-BEARING TREES 

The Locusts — The Acacias or Wattles — Other Pod- 
bearers 

Whenever we see blossoms of the sweet-pea type on a 
tree or pods of the same type as the pea's swinging from the 
twigs, we may be sure that we are looking at a member of 
the pod-bearing family, leguminosae, to which herbaceous 
and woody plants both belong. The family is one of the 
largest and most important in the plant kingdom, and its 
representatives are distributed to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. Four hundred and fifty genera contain the 
seven thousand species already described by botanists. 
Varieties without number beiong to the cultivated mem- 
bers of the family, and new forms are being produced by 
horticulturists all the time. This great group of plants has 
fed the human race, directly and indirectly, since the First 
Man appeared on earth. Clovers, alfalfas, lentils, peas, 
beans yield foodstuffs rich in all the elements that build 
flesh and bone and nerve tissues. They take the place of 
meat in vegetarian dietaries. 

Besides foods, the pod-bearers yield rubber, dyestuffs, 
balsams, oils, medicinal substances, and valuable timber. 
A long list of ornamental plants, beautiful in foliage and 
flowers, occurs among them, chiefly of shrub and tree form. 

176 



THE LOCUSTS 177 

Last, but not least, among their merits stands the fact 
that leguminous plants are the only ones that actually en- 
rich the soil they grow in, whereas the rest of the plant 
creation feed upon the soil, and so rob it of its plant food 
and leave it poorer than before. 

Pod-bearers have the power to take the nitrogen out of 
the air, and store it in their roots and stems. The decay of 
these parts restores to the soil the particular plant food 
that is most commonly lacking and most costly to replace. 
Farmers know that after wheat and corn have robbed the 
soil of nitrogen, a crop of clover or cow peas, plowed 
under when green and luxuriant, is the best restorer of 
fertility. It enriches by adding valuable chemical ele- 
ments, and also improves the texture of the soil, increasing 
its moisture-holding properties, which commercial ferti- 
lizers do not. 

Seventeen genera of leguminous plants have tree repre- 
sentatives within the United States. These include about 
thirty species. Valuable timber trees are in this group. 
All but one, the yellow-wood, have compound leaves, of 
many leaflets, often fernlike in their delicacy of structure, 
and intricacy of pattern. With few exceptions the flowers 
are pretty and fragrant in showy clusters. The ripening 
pods of many species add a striking, decorative quality to 
the tree from midsummer on through the season. Thorns 
give distinction and usefulness to certain of these trees, 
making them available for ornamental hedges. 

THE LOCUSTS 

Three representatives of the genus robin ia are among our 
native forest trees. They arc known in early summer by 



178 TREES 

their showy, pea-like blossoms in full clusters, and their 
compound leaves, that have the' habit of drooping and 
folding shut their paired leaflets when night comes on, or 
when rain begins to fall. The pods are thin and small, 
splitting early, but hanging late on the twigs. 

The Black Locust 

Rohinia Pseudacacia, Linn. 

The black or yellow locust is a beautiful tree in its youth, 
with smooth dark rind and slender trunk, holding up a 
loose roundish head of dark green foliage. Each leaf is 
eight to fourteen inches long, of nine to nineteen leaflets, 
silvery when they unfold, and always paler beneath. In 
late May, the tree-top bursts into bloom that is often so 
profuse as to whiten the whole mass of the dainty foliage. 
The nectar-laden, white flowers have the characteristic 
"butterfly" form, the banner, wings, and keel of the type 
pease-blossom. (See illustration, page 198). The bees 
lead the insect host that swarms about them as long as a 
locust flower remains to offer sweets to the probing 
tongues. Cross-fertilization is the advantage the tree 
gains for all it gives. The crop of seeds is sure. 

The angled twigs of the black locust break easily in 
windy weather. The rapid growth of the limbs spreads the 
narrow head, and its symmetry is soon destroyed, unless 
the tree grows in a sheltered situation. An old locust is 
usually an ugly, broken specimen, ragged-looking for three- 
fourths of the year. The twigs look dead, because their 
winter buds are buried out of sight! The bark is dull, 
deeply cut into irregular, interlacing furrows, roughened 
by scales and shreds on the ridges. In winter the pods 



THE LOCUSTS 179 

chatter querulously, as the wind plays among the tree- 
tops. 

The black locust is found from Pennsylvania to Iowa, 
and south from Georgia to Oklahoma. The lumber is 
coarse-grained, heavy, hard, and exceptionally durable in 
contact with the soil or water. This makes it especially 
adaptable for fence posts and boat bottoms. Crystals, 
called raphides, in the wood cells, take the edges off tools 
used in working locust lumber. Yet it is sought by 
manufacturers of mill cogs and wheel hubs, and railroad 
companies plant the trees for ties. 

The locust-borer has ruined plantations of this tree of 
late years, and trees in the woods have become infested 
except in mountainous regions not yet reached by the pest. 
Trees become distorted with warty excrescences and the 
lumber is riddled with burrows made by the larvae. Until 
the entomologist finds a remedy in some natural parasite 
of the locust-borer, the outlook for locust culture seems 
dark enough. No insecticide can reach an enemy that 
hides in the trunk of the tree it destroys. 

The Clammy Locust 

R. viscosa, Vent. 

The clammy locust has beautifully shaded pink flowers in 
clusters, each blossom accented by the dark red, shiny 
calyx, and the glandular exudation of wax, that covers all 
new growth. A favorite ornamental locust, this little tree 
has been widely distributed in this and other temperate 
countries of the globe. Its leaves are delicately feathery, 
with the dew-like gum brightening them, as it does also the 
hairy, curling pods that flush as they ripen. In winter the 



180 TREES 

twigs are ruddy. The trees grow wild on tlie mountains of 
the Carolinas and nowhere else. 



The Honey Locust 

Gleditsia iriacanihos, Linn. 

The honey locust is a tall handsome flat-topped tree, with 
stiff horizontal, often drooping branches, ending in slim 
brown polished twigs, with three-branched thorns, stout 
and very sharp, set a little distance above the leaf scar of 
the previous season. Occasionally a thornless tree occurs. 

Inconspicuous greenish flowers, regular, bell-shaped, 
appear in elongated clusters, the fertile and sterile clusters 
distinct, but on the same tree. The leaves are almost full- 
grown when the blossoms appear. Their feathery, fern- 
like aspect is the tree's greatest charm in early June. 
When the pods replace the flowers they attract attention 
and admiration as their velvety surfaces change from pale 
green to rose and they curve, as they lengthen, into all sorts 
of graceful and fantastic forms. The sweet, gummy pulp 
of the honey locust pods is considered edible by boys, who 
brave the thorns to get them. As the autumn approaches, 
the pulp turns bitter, and dries around the shiny black 
seeds. The purple pods cling and rattle in the wind long 
after the yellow leaves have fallen. One by one, they are 
torn off, their S-curves tempting every vagrant breeze to 
give them a lift. On the crusty surface of snowbanks and 
icy ponds, they are whirled along, and finally lodge, to rot 
and liberate the seeds. It takes much soaking to pre- 
pare the adamantine seeds for sprouting. The planter 
scalds his seed to hasten the orocess. Nature soaks, 



THE LOCUSTS 181 

freezes, and thaws them, and thus the range of the honey 
locust is extended. 

In the wild, this tree is found from Ontario to Nebraska, 
and south to Alabama and Texas. It chooses rich bottom 
lands, but is found also on dry gravelly slopes of the 
Alleghany Mountains. Trunks six feet in diameter are 
still in existence, preserved from the early forests of the 
Wabash Basin in Indiana. They tower nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the ground, and their branches 
are a formidable array of thorns (see illustration, "page 198), 
that have grown into proportions unmatched in trees of 
slender build and fewer years. Such a veteran honey 
locust is one of the most picturesque figures in a winter 
landscape. 

Honey locust wood is hard, coarse-grained, heavy, and 
durable in contact with water and soil. It is made into 
wheel-hubs, fence-posts, and fuel. In all temperate 
countries this species has been used as a shade and orna- 
mental tree and as a hedge plant. 

The Kentucky Coffee Tree 

Gymnocladus dioicus, K. Koch 

The Kentucky coffee tree is the one clumsy, coarse mem- 
ber of a family that abounds in graceful, dainty species. 
Its head is small and unsymmetrical, above a trunk that 
often rises free from limbs for fifty feet above ground. The 
branches are stiff and large, bare until late spring, when the 
buds expand and the shoots are thrown out. The leaves 
are twice compound, often a yard in length and half as 
wide; the leaflets, six to fourteen on each of the five to nine 
divisions of the main rib. No other locust can boast a leaf 



182 TREES 

numbering more than one hundred leaflets, each averaging 
two inches in length. When the tree turns to gold in 
autumn, it is a sight to draw all eyes. 

The flower spray is large, but the flowers are small, im- 
perfect, salver-form, purplish green — the fertile ones form- 
ing thick, clumsy pods that dangle in clusters, and seem to 
weigh down the stiff branchlets. The fresh pulp used to be 
made into a decoction used in homeopathic practice. The 
ripe seeds were used in Revolutionary times as a substitute 
for coffee. How the pioneer ever crushed them is a 
puzzle to all who have tried to break one with a nut- 
cracker. In China the fresh pulp of the pods of a sister 
species is used as we use soap. 

The wood is not hard, but in other respects it resembles 
other locust lumber. It is sometimes used in cabinet 
work, being a rich, reddish brown, with pale sapwood. 

The range of the coffee tree extends from New York to 
Nebraska, and south through Pennsylvania, Tennessee 
and Oklahoma, with bottom lands as the tree's preference . 
Nowhere is this species common. Occasionally, it is 
planted as a street tree, in this country and abroad. 

The Redbud 

Cercis Canadensis, Linn. 

The redbud covers its delicate angled, thornless branch- 
lets with a profusion of rosy-purple blossoms, typically 
pea-like, before the leaves appear. The unusual color, so 
abundant where little redbuds form thickets on the out- 
skirts of a woodland, leads to a very general recognition of 
this tree among people who go into the April woods for 
early violets. It vies with the white banner of the shad- 




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THE LOCUSTS 183 

bush, in doing honor to the spring. Later, the broad 
heart-shaped leaves cover and adorn the tree, concealing 
the dainty tapering pods that turn to purple as the polished 
leaf blades, unmarred by insect or wind, change from green 
to clear yellow before falling. 

Tradition has given this charming little locust tree the 
name, "Judas-tree," from its European cousin, rumored to 
have been the one upon which the choice of Judas fell when 
he went out and hanged himself. It is an unearned 
stigma, better forgotten, for it does prejudice the planter 
against a tree that should be on every lawn, preferably 
showing its rosy flowers against a bank of evergreens. 

Its natural range extends from New Jersey to Florida 
and west from Ontario to Nebraska and southward. The 
largest specimens reach fifty feet in height in Texas and 
Arkansas, in river bottom lands, and in the Southwest the 
tree is an abundant undergrowth — making a beautiful 
woodland picture in early spring. 

The Yellow-wood 

Cladrastis lutea, K. Koch. 

The yellow-wood was named by the wife of a pioneer, 
surely, for she soaked the chips and got from them a clear 
yellow dye, highly prized for the permanent color it gave to 
her homespun cotton and woolen cloth that must have 
gone colorless, but for dyestuffs discoverable in the woods. 

The satiny grain of the wood, and its close hard texture, 
commended it to the woodsman, who used it for gun 
stocks. But the tree is too small to be important for the 
lumber it yields. 

In winter the smooth pale bark of the "Virgflia," as the 



184 TREES 

nurseryman calls it, reminds one of the rind of the beech. 
The broad rounded head, often borne on three or more 
spreading stems, is formed of drooping graceful branches, 
ending in brittle twigs. Summer clothes these twigs with 
a light airy covering of compound leaves, of seven to 
eleven broadly oval leaflets, on a stalk less than a foot in 
length. In autumn, the foliage turns yellow. 

White flowers, pea-like, delicate, fragrant, in clusters a 
foot long, and so loose that the flowers seem to drip from 
the twig ends, drape the tree in white about the middle of 
June, when the young leaves show many tints of green to 
form a background for the blossoms. 

This is the supreme moment of the year for one of the 
most charming of trees, in any park that cherishes one of 
these virgilias. In the wilds of eastern Tennessee, 
northern Alabama, and central Kentucky the species is 
found in scattered places. But the wild trees have scant 
food and they show it. The full beauty of the species is 
seen only in cultivation, as one sees it in the Arnold 
Arboretum, and in private gardens near Boston. Even 
the little pods, thin, satiny pointed, add a harmonious note 
of beauty, their silvery fawn color blending with the quiet 
Quaker drab worn by the tree all winter. Fortunately, 
this hardy beautiful park tree is easily raised from seeds and 
from root cuttings. It thrives on soil of many different 
kinds. It has no bad habits, no superior, and few equals 
among flowering trees. 

THE ACACIAS, OR WATTLES 

Australia has contributed to southern California's tree 
flora a large number of forms of the acacia tribe, shrubs 



THE ACACIAS 185 

and trees of great variety and beauty of flowers and ever- 
green foliage. They are hardy and perfectly at home, and 
are planted in such profusion as to be the commonest of all 
street and ornamental trees. The leaves are set on a 
branching pinnate stem, making them "twice compound" 
of many tiny leaflets, fascicled on the sides of the twigs, 
alternate on the terminal shoots of the season. The lacy, 
fern-like foliage of most acacias would justify the planting 
of them for this trait alone. But the abundant mass of 
bloom usually overwhelms the tree-tops, obscuring the 
foliage with a veil of golden mesh. Sometimes white, but 
oftenest yellow, the individual flowers are very small; but 
they crowd in button-like heads or elongated spikes, set 
close in axillary clusters. In their native woods these 
trees flower much less freely than in the land of their adop- 
tion. The curling pods are in most species and varieties 
ornamental, as they pass through many color changes before 
they finally discharge their seeds. 

Acacias compose a genus of four hundred species, and an 
untold and constantly increasing number of cultivated 
varieties. The continent of Australia has the greatest re- 
presentation of native species. Others belong to Africa — 
tropical, northern, and southern regions. Asia, in its 
warmer southern territory, and in southwestern China, 
has many native acacias. Tropical and temperate South 
America, the West Indies, Central America, Mexico, the 
southwestern region of the United States, and the islands 
of the South Pacific, all have representatives of this won- 
derful and far-scattered genus. There is no country in- 
terested in horticulture that does not grow acacias as orna- 
mental shrubs and trees, even if they must be grown under 
glass the year round. In southern England the acacias, 






186 TREES 

grown in open ground, and known as "tassel trees," attain 
good size. 

Valuable lumber, tanbarks, dyes, perfumes, and drugs 
are yielded by acacias. Gum Arabic is the dried sap of 
several oriental species, particularly, Acacia Arabica, Linn, 
of Egypt and southern Asia. 

As a rule, acacias have slender branches armed with 
spines. Often these are too small to attract notice, or to 
make the species useful as a hedge plant. All spines are 
modifications of the stipules at the base of leaf or leaflet. 
Thorns, however, are modified twigs, strong, stiff and 
sharp, often branched. The honey locust shows true 
thorns, not spines or prickles. The armament of canes of 
blackberry is only skin deep. This means of defence is 
best called "prickles." 



The Black Acacia 

Acacia melanoxylon 

The black acacia, called at home in Australian woods, the 
"blackwood-tree," for its black heart- wood, is a familiar 
street and shade tree in California. In narrow parkings it 
is likely to surprise the planter by outgrowing in a few 
years the space allotted to it, and upheaving both cement 
walk and curb, by the irresistible force of its thick roots. 
It is one of the large timber acacias, and even in the cool 
climate of England reaches fifty feet. 

In suitable situations in California it grows much higher, 
and its compact conical head of dense evergreen foliage, 
gives abundant shade at all seasons. The flowers are 
white or cream-colored, lightening the yellow-green of the 



THE ACACIAS 187 

new shoots and the dull, opaque of the older leaves, with 
abundant clusters in earliest spring. The succeeding 
fruits are curling thin pods that hang in brownish sheaves, 
giving the tree a rusty look. Each seed is rimmed with a 
frill of terra cotta hue that serves as a wing for its flight, 
when detached by the wind. The roots send up suckers 
and the seeds are quick to grow. So any one can have 
black acacias with little trouble or expense. Its shedding 
of leaves and pods makes much litter, however, a trait 
sometimes overlooked which seriously diminishes its de- 
sirability as a street and shade tree. 

The Silver Wattle 

A. dealbata 

The silver wattle of nursery catalogues is named for its 
abundant, silvery-pubescent, feathery foliage. Its flow- 
ers — fluffy golden balls, small but abundant — make this a 
wonderfully showy tree. 

Sea-green and turquoise-blue leaves, with abundant 
canary-yellow bloom, are traits of many different acacias 
in cultivation, all of which are rapid growers, and soon re- 
pay the planter who wants quick results. From being 
mere ornaments they rise to the stature of shade trees, and 
merely multiply the charms that made them admired 
when young. Varieties with sharp spines are employed as 
hedge plants. Curious leaf forms and unusual, edgewise 
position of the foliage, make us wonder at some of the 
glorious "golden wattles" and "knife-leaved acacias," 
that bring us glimpses of the forests of Australia and other 
strange far countries. 



188 TREES 



OTHER POD-BEARERS 

The Mesquite 

Prosopis juliflora, DC. 

The mesquite or honey pod is one of the wonderful 
plants of the arid and semi-arid regions from Col- 
orado and Utah to Texas and southern California. 
At best it is a tree sixty feet high along the rivers of 
Arizona. In the higher and more desert stretches it is 
stunted to a sprawling shrub, with numerous stems but 
a few feet high. Its leaves are like those of our honey 
locust but very much smaller, and the tree furnishes little 
shade. The bark of the trunk is thick, dark reddish 
brown, shallowly fissured between scaly ridges. In 
winter the tree looks dead enough, but the young 
shoots clothed with tender green bring it to life in early 
spring, and the greenish fragrant flowers* thickly set in 
finger-like clusters, appear in successive crops from May to 
July. These are succeeded by pods four to nine inches 
long in drooping clusters, each containing ten to twenty 
beans. 

Not its beauty of leaf and blossom but its usefulness is 
what makes this tree almost an object of worship to desert 
dwellers, red men and white. The long fat pods supply 
Mexicans and Indians with a nutritious food, green or ripe. 
Cattle feed upon the young shoots and thrive, when other 
forage is scant or utterly lacking. The fuel problem of the 
desert is solved by the mesquite in a way that is a great 
surprise to the newcomer. His sophisticated neighbor 



OTHER POD-BEARERS 189 

takes him on a wood-gathering expedition. Stopping 
where a shrubby mesquite sprawls, he hitches his team to a 
chain or rope that lays hold of the trunk, and hauls the 
plant out by its roots. And what roots the mesquite has 
developed in its search for water! There is a central tap 
root that goes down, down, sometimes sixty feet or more. 
Secondary roots branch out in all directions, interlock, 
thicken, and form a labyrinth of woody substance, in 
quantity and quality that makes the timber above ground 
a negligible quantity. This wood is cut into building and 
fencing materials — two great needs in the desert. The 
waste makes good fuel, and every scrap is precious. 
Posts, railroad ties, frames for the adobe houses, furniture, 
fellies of wheels, paving blocks, and charcoal are made of 
this wonderful tree's root system. A gum resembling gum- 
arabic exudes from the stems. 



The Screw-bean 

P. pubescens, Benth. 

The screw-bean or screw-pod mesquite is a small slender- 
trunked tree with sharp spines at the bases of the hoary 
foliage. The marked distinction between this species and 
the preceding one is in the fruit, which makes from twelve 
to twenty turns as it matures, and forms when ripe a 
narrow straight spiral, one to two inches long; but when 
drawn out like a coiled spring the pod is shown to be more 
than a foot in length. These sweet nutritious pods are a 
most useful fodder for range cattle, and the wood is used 
for fencing and fuel. This tree grows from southern Utah 
and Nevada through New Mexico and Arizona into San 






190 TREES 

Diego County, California, western Texas and northern 
Mexico. 

The Palo Verde Acacia 

Cercidium Torreyanum, Sarg. 

The palo verde is another green-barked acacia whose 
leaves are almost obsolete. Miniature honey-locust 
leaves an inch long unfold, a few here and there in March 
and April, but they are gone before they fully mature, and 
the leaf function is carried on entirely by the vivid green 
branches. Clustered flowers, like little yellow roses, 
cover the branches in April, and the pointed pods ripen and 
fall in July. 

In the Colorado desert of southern California, in the 
valley of the lower Gila River in Arizona, on the sides of 
low canyons and on desert sandhills into Mexico, this small 
tree, with its multitude of leafless, ascending branches, is 
one of the brightest features on a hopelessly dun-colored 
landscape. 

The Jamaica Dogwood 

Icthyomethia Piscipula, A. S. Hitch. 

The Jamaica dogwood is a West Indian tree that grows 
also in southern Florida and Mexico. It is one of the 
commonest tropical trees on the Florida West Coast from 
the shores of Bay Biscayne to the Southern Keys. The 
leaves are four to nine inches long, with leaflets three to 
four inches in length, deciduous, vivid green, making a tree 
fifty feet high an object of tropical luxuriance. Its beauty 
is greatly enhanced in May by the opening of the pink, pea- 
like blossoms that hang in drooping clusters a foot or more 



OTHER POD-BEARERS 191 

in length. The necklace-like pods are frilled on four sides 
with thin papery wings. 

The wood of this tree is very durable in contact with 
water, besides being heavy, close-grained, and hard. It is 
locally used in boat-building, and for fuel and charcoal. All 
parts of the tree, but especially the bark of the roots, con- 
tain an acid drug of sleep-inducing properties. In the 
West Indies the powdered leaves, young branches, and the 
bark of the roots have long been used by the natives to 
stupefy fish they try to capture. 

The Horse Bean 

ParJcinsonia aculeata, Linn. 

The horse bean or retama, native to the valleys of the 
lower Rio Grande and Colorado River, is a small graceful 
pod-bearing tree of drooping branches set with strong 
spines, long leaf -stems, branching and set with many pairs 
of tiny leaflets. 

The bright yellow, fragrant flowers are almost perennial. 
In Texas the tree is out of bloom only in midwinter. In the 
tropics, it is ever-blooming. The fruit hangs in graceful 
racemes, dark orange-brown in color, and compressed be- 
tween the remote beans. As a hedge and ornamental 
garden plant, this tree has no equal in the Southwest. It 
is met with in cultivation in most warm countries. 

The Texas Ebony 

Zigia flexicaulis, Sudw. 

The Texas ebony is a beautiful, acacia-like tree of south- 
ern Texas and Mexico. One of the commonest and most 



192 TREES 

beautiful trees on the bluffs along the coast, south of the 
Rio Grande. Its leaves are feathery, fern-like, its flowers 
in creamy clusters, its pods thick, almost as large as those 
of the honey locust. The seeds are palatable and nutri- 
tious, green or ripe. Immature, the pods are cooked like 
string beans; ripe, they are roasted, and the pods them- 
selves are ground and used as a substitute for coffee. 

The wood is valuable in fine cabinet work, and because 
it is almost indestructible in contact with the ground, it is 
largely used for fence posts. It makes superior fuel. Besides 
being more valuable than any other tree of the Rio Grande 
Valley, though it rarely exceeds thirty feet in height, it is 
worthy of the attention of gardeners as well as foresters in 
all warm temperate countries. Prof. Sargent calls it the 
finest ornamental tree native to Texas. 

The Frijolito 

Sophora secundiflora, DC. 

The frijolito or coral-bean is a small, slender narrow- 
headed tree, with persistent, locust-like leaves, fragrant 
violet-blue flowers, and small one-sided racemes. The 
pods are silky white, pencil-like, constricted between the 
bright scarlet seeds. The tree grows wild in canyons in 
southern Texas and New Mexico, forming thickets or 
small groves in low moist limestone soil and stream bor- 
ders. It Is a close relative of the famous pagoda tree of 
Japan, S. Japonica, universally cultivated; and it deserves 
to be a garden tree throughout the Southern states. 



PART VII 
DECIDUOUS TREES WITH WINGED SEEDS 

The Maples — The Ashes — The Elms 

THE MAPLES 

A single genus, acer, includes from sixty to seventy 
species, widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere. 
A single species goes south of the equator, to the mountains 
of Java. All produce pale close-grained, fairly hard wood, 
valued in turnery and for the interior finish of houses. The 
clear sap of some American species is made into maple 
sugar. 

The signs by which we may know a member of Ihe maple 
family are two : opposite, simple leaves, palmately veined 
and lobed; and fruits in the form of paired samaras, com- 
pressed and drawn out into large thin wings. No amount 
of improvement changes these family traits. No other 
tree has both leaves and fruits like a maple's. 

The distribution of genus acer is interesting. The origi- 
nal home of the family is in the Far East. In China 
and Japan we may reckon up about thirty indigo maples, 
while only nine are native to North America. Of these, 
five are in the eastern half of the continent, three in the 
West, and one grows indifferently on both sides of the 
Great Divide. 

188 



194 TREES 

The Sugar Maple 

Acer saccharum, Marsh. 

The sugar maple (see illustration, page 198-199) is eco- 
nomically the most important member of its family in this 
country. As an avenue and shade tree it is unsurpassed. 
It is the great timber maple, whose curly and birds-eye 
wood is loved by the cabinet-maker; and whose sap boiled 
down, ^yields maple sugar — a delicious sweet, with the 
distinctive flavor beloved by all good Americans. In 
October the sugar maple paints the landscape with yellow 
and orange and red. Its firm broad leaves, shallowly cleft 
into five lobes, are variously toothed besides. The flowers 
open late, hanging on the season's shoots in hairy yellow 
clusters. The key fruits are smooth and plump, with 
wings only slightly diverging. They are shed in midsummer . 

Hard maple wood outranks all other maple lumber, 
though the curly grain and the bird's-eye are accidental 
forms rarely found. Flooring makes special/ demands 
upon this wood. Much is used in furniture factories; and 
small wares — shoe lasts, shoe pegs and the like — consume a 
great deal. As fuel, hard maple is outranked only by 
hickory. Its ashes are rich in potash and are in great de- 
mand as fertilizer in orchards and gardens. 

The living tree, in the park, on the street, casting its 
shade about the home, or glowing red among the trees of 
the woods, is more valuable than its lumber. Slow-grow- 
ing, strong to resist damage by storm, clean in habit and 
beautiful the year round — this is our splendid rock maple. 
Rich, indeed, is the city whose early inhabitants chose it as 
the permanent street tree. 



THE MAPLES 195 

The Black Maple 

A. nigrum, Michx. 

The black maple is so like the sugar maple that they are 
easily confused, but its stout branchlets are orange-colored, 
the leaves are smooth and green on both sides, scantly 
toothed, and they droop as if their stems were too weak to 
hold up the blades. The keys spread more widely than 
those of the sugar maple. 

The black maple is the sugar maple of South Dakota 
and Iowa. It becomes rarer as one goes east. It is an 
admirable lumber tree, as well as a noble street and shade 
tree. 

Two soft maples are found in the eastern part of the 
country, their sap less sweet, their wood softer than the 
hard maples, and their fitness for street planting corres- 
pondingly less. 

The Red Maple 

A. rubrum, Linn. 

The red maple is a lover of swamps. It thrives, 
however, on hillsides, if the soil be moist; and is planted 
widely in parks and along village streets. In beauty it 
excels all other maples. In early spring its swelling buds 
glow like garnets on the brown twigs (see illustrations, 
pages 198-199) . The opening flowers have red petals, and the 
first leaves, which accompany the early bloom, are red. 
In May the dainty flat keys, in clusters on their long, 
flexible stems, are as red as a cock's comb, and beautiful 
against the bright green of the new foliage. In early 
September in New England, a splash of red in the woods, 



196 TREES 

across a swamp, is sure to be a scarlet maple that suddenly 
declares its name. Against the green of a hemlock forest 
these maples show their color like a splash of blood. The 
tree is gorgeous. 

In winter the lover of the woods, re-visiting the scenes 
of his summer rambles, knows the scarlet maple by the 
knotty, full-budded twigs which gleam like red-hot needles 
set with coral beads, against the clean-limbed, gray-trunked 
tree. The red maple never quite forgets its name. 

As a street tree, it makes rapid progress when it once 
becomes established, though it is apt to stand still for a 
time after being transplanted. Its branches are short, 
numerous, and erect, making a round head, admirably 
adapted to the resistance of heavy winds. It is particu- 
larly suited to use in narrow streets. 

The Soft Maple 

A. saccharinum, Linn. 

The soft maple or silver maple {see illustration, page 199) 
has a white-lined leaf, cleft almost to the midrib and each 
division again deeply cut. It is quick and ready to grow, 
and has been widely planted as a street tree, especially in 
prairie regions of uncertain rainfall. It is one of the 
poorest of trees for street planting, because it has a sprawl- 
ing habit and weak brittle wood. The heavy limbs have 
great horizontal spread, and are easily broken by ice and 
windstorms. When planted on streets, they require 
constant cutting back to make them even safe. Thick 
crops of suckers rise from the stubs of branches, but the 
top thus formed is neither beautiful nor useful. 

Wier's weeping maple, a cut-leaved, drooping variety 



THE MAPLES 197 

of this silver maple, is often seen as a lawn tree, imitating 
the habit of the weeping willow. 

The Oregon Maple 

A. macrophyllum, Pursh. 

The Oregon maple grows from southern Alaska to Lower 
California, along the banks of streams. The great leaves, 
often a foot in diameter, on blades of equal length, are the 
distinguishing marks of this stout-limbed tree, that grows 
in favorable soil to a height of a hundred feet. In southern 
Oregon it forms pure forest, its huge limbs forming mag- 
nificent, interlacing arches that shut out the sun and make 
a wonderful cover for ferns and mosses far below. The 
wood of this tree is the best hard-wood lumber on the 
West Coast. 

The Vine Maple 

A. circinatum, Pursh. 

The vine maple reminds one of the lianas of tropical 
woods, for it has not sufficient stiffness to stand erect. 
It grows in the bottom lands and up the mountain sides, 
but always following water-courses, from British Columbia 
to northern California. Its vine-like stems spring up in 
clusters from the ground, spreading in wide curves, and 
these send out long, slender twigs which root when they 
touch the ground, thus forming impenetrable thickets, 
often many acres in extent. 

The leaf is almost circular and cut into narrow equal 
lobes around the margin; green in midsummer, it changes 
to red and gold in autumn, and the woodsman, almost 









198 TREES 

worn out with the labor of getting through the maze these 
trees form, must delight, when he stops to rest, in the 
autumn glory of this wonderful ground cover. 

These little maples lend a wonderful charm to the edges 
of forest highways in the Eastern states. Like the horn- 
beams, hazel bushes, and ground hemlock, they are lovers 
of the shade; and they fringe the forest with a shrubbery 
border. 

The Striped Maple 

A. Pennsylvanicum, Linn. 

The 'striped maple is quickly recognized by the pale 
white lines that streak in delicate patterns the smooth 
green bark of the branches. The leaves are large and 
finely saw-toothed, with three triangular lobes at the top. 
The yellowish bell-flowers hang in drooping clusters, 
followed by the smooth green keys, in midsummer. This 
tree is called "Moose wood," for moose browse upon it. 

The shrubbery border of parks is lightened in autumn 
by the yellow f oliage of this little tree, and in winter the 
bark is very attractive. " Whistlewood " is the name 
the boys know this tree by, for in spring the bark slips 
easily, and they cut branches of suitable size for whistles. 

The Mountain Maple 

A. spicatum, Lam. 

The mountain maple is a dainty shrub with ruddy stems, 
large, three-lobed leaves, erect clusters of yellow flowers 
and tiny brown keys. It follows the mountains from 
New England to northern Georgia, and from the Great 
Lakes extends to the Saskatchewan. 



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SUGAR MAPLE 



Maple sugar is made in February; the trees bloom in May; their 
seeds ripen in October 




See page 195 



THE RED MAPLE S PISTILLATE (left) AND 
STAMINATE {right) FLOWERS 




l _ 



THE MAPLES 199 

The Dwarf Maple 

A, glabrum, Torr. 

The dwarf maple ranges plentifully from Canada to 
Arizona and New Mexico. Its leaves, typically three- 
lobed and cut-toothed, vary to a compound form of three 
coarse-toothed leaflets. The winged keys are ruddy in 
midsummer, lending an attractive dash of color to the 
woods that border high mountain streams. 

Very common in cultivation are the Japanese maples — 
miniature trees, bred and cultivated for centuries, won- 
derful in the variations in form and coloring of their 
leaves. Tiny maple trees in pots are often very old. 
Some leaves are mere skeletons. 

The Japanese people are worshippers of beauty and 
they delight particularly in garden shows. In the autumn, 
when the maples have reached perfection, the populace 
turns out in holiday attire to celebrate a grand national 
fete. A sort of aesthetic jubilee it is, like the spring 
jubilee of the cherry blossom To each careful gardener 
who has patiently toiled to bring his maples to perfection, 
it is sufficient reward that the people make this annual 
pilgrimage to view them. 

The Box Elder 

A. Negundo, Linn. 

The box elder is the one maple whose leaves are always 
cleft to the stem, making it compound of irregularly 
toothed leaflets. The clusters of flattened keys, which 
hang all winter on the trees, declare the kinship of this 
tree to the maples. 






200 TREES 

Fast-growing, hardy, willing to grow in treeless regions, 
this tree has spread from its eastern range throughout the 
plains, where shelter belts were the first needs of the 
settlers. Pretty at first, these box elders are soon broken 
down and unsightly. They should be used only as tem- 
porary trees, alternating with elms, hard maples, and 
ashes. Where they are neglected, or continue to be 
planted, the character of the town or the premises must 
be cheap and ugly. 

The Norway Maple 

A. platanoides, Linn. 

The Norway maple is counted the best maple we have 
for street planting. Broad, thin leaves, three-lobed by 
wide sinuses, cover with a thick thatch the rounded head 
of the tree. Green on both sides, thin and smooth, these 
leaves seem to withstand remarkably the smoke, soot, and 
dust of cities, and also the attacks of insects. The keys 
are large, wide-winged, set opposite, the nutlets meeting 
in a straight line. These pale green key clusters are 
very handsome among the green leaves in summer — the 
tree's chief ornament until the foliage mass turns yellow 
in autumn. A peculiarity of the Norway maple is the 
milky juice that starts from a broken leaf -stem. 

The Sycamore Maple 

A. pseudo-platanus, Linn. 

The sycamore maple is another European immigrant, 
whose broad leaf is thick and leathery in texture, and 
pale underneath. Its late-opening flowers are borne in 






THE ASHES 201 

long racemes, followed by the small key fruits which 
cling to the twigs over winter, making the tree look dingy 
and untidy. This tree has not the hardiness nor the com- 
pact form of the Norway maple, and it is subject to the 
attack of borers. 

It is the "sycamore" of Europe, famed as a lumber 
and an avenue tree abroad, but with us it proves short- 
lived, and we have no reason for choosing it. The copious 
seed production of the far preferable Norway maple puts 
it within the reach of all. 

THE ASHES 

Few large trees in our American woods have their 
leaves set opposite upon the twig. Still fewer of the 
trees with compound leaves show this arrangement. Con- 
sult the first broad-leaved tree you meet, and the chances 
are that its leaves are set alternately upon the twigs. 
There is a multitude of families in this class; but if 
the leaves are paired and set opposite, we narrow the 
families to a very few. Are the leaves simple? Then 
the tree may be a maple or a dogwood, or a viburnum. 
Are the leaves opposite and compound? Then you have 
one of two families. Are the leaflets clustered on the 
end of the leaf -stalk? Then the tree is a buckeye or a 
horse chestnut — members of the buckeye family. Are 
the leaflets set along the sides of the central stem? Then 
the tree is an ash. A few exceptions may be discovered, 
but the rule holds in the general forest area of North 
America. 

Ash trees have lance-shaped, winged seeds, borne in 
profuse clusters, and often held well into the winter. But 



202 TREES 

there is no season when the leaf arrangement cannot be at 
once determined by the leaf scars, prominent upon the 
twigs; and under the tree there will always be remnants 
of the cast-off foliage, to show that it is compound, 

Ash trees are usually large and stately when full grown, 
with trunks clothed in smooth bark, checked into small, 
often diamond-shaped plates. This gives the trees a 
trim, handsome appearance in the winter woods. As 
shade trees, ashes are very desirable, and they are valuable 
for their timber. 

The near relatives of ashes surprise us. They belong to 
the olive family, whose type is the olive tree of the Medi- 
terranean region, now extensively cultivated in California 
for its fruit. Privets, lilacs, and forsythias, favorites in 
the gardens of all countries that have temperate climates, 
are cousins to the ash tree. One of its most charming 
relatives is the little fringe tree of our own woods. Thirty 
species of ash are known; half of that number inhabit 
North America. There are ash trees in every section of 
our country except the extremes of latitude and altitude. 
Tropical ash trees are native to Cuba, North Africa, and 
the Orient. 

The White Ash 

Fraxinus Americana, Linn. 

The white ash is one of the noblest trees in the American 
forest, the peer of the loftiest oak or walnut. When young 
it is slim and graceful, but it grows sturdier as it approaches 
maturity, lifting stout, spreading branches above a tail, 
massive trunk. In the forest the head is narrow, but in 
the open the dome of a white ash is as broad and sym- 
metrical as that of a white oak. A gray rind covers the 



THE ASHES 203 

young branches and the bark is gray. The foliage has 
white lining and each of the seven leaflets has a short stalk. 
These are all characters that distinguish the white ash 
from other species and enable one to name it at a 
glance. In the South the white ash is undersized and the 
wood is of poor quality. In the Northeastern and Central 
states it is one of the most important and largest of our 
timber trees, with wood more valuable than any other ash. 
Its uses are manifold: it is staple in the manufacture of 
agricultural implements, carriages, furniture, and in the 
interior finish of buildings. Tool handles and oars are 
made of white ash and it is superior as fuel. The reddish- 
brown heart-wood, with paler sap-wood, is tough, elastic, 
hard, and heavy. It is not durable in soil and becomes 
brittle with age. 

Ash trees are late in coming into leaf. When all the 
forest is green and full of blossoms, the ash trees are still 
naked. Not until May do the rusty yellow winter buds of 
the white ash swell and throw out on separate trees their 
staminate and pistillate flower clusters from the axils of 
last year's foliage. (See illustration, page 21b.) Then the 
leaves unfold; downy at first, becoming bright and shiny 
above, but always with pale linings. On fertile trees the 
inconspicuous flowers mature into pointed fruits, one to 
two inches long. The wing is twice the length of the seed 
and is rounded to a blunt point. The seed itself is round 
and pointed, on branching stalks that form clusters from 
six to eight inches long. 

As a street tree the white ash deserves much more 
general favor in cities than it has yet achieved, for it is 
straight and symmetrical, and its light foliage grows in 
irregular, wavy masses, through which some sunlight can 



204 TREES 

always sift and let grass grow under the tree. This tree is 
a rapid grower, perfectly hardy in most sections of the 
country, and has no serious insect enemies. The foliage 
turns to brownish purple and yellow in the autumn. 



The Black Ash 
F. nigra, Marsh. 

The black ash is a lover of marshes, found from New- 
foundland to Manitoba, and from Virginia to Arkansas. 
Its blue-black winter buds, the sombre green of its foliage, 
and the dark hues of its bark and wood have justified the 
popular name of this handsome, slender tree. The leaflets, 
oval and long-pointed, are sessile on the hairy leaf stalk, 
except the terminal one. At maturity the leaves are 
a foot or more in length, of seven to eleven leaflets, that 
turn brown and fall early in autumn. The keys of the 
black ash are borne in open panicles, eight to ten inches 
long; each has a short, flat seed, with a broad blade, 
thin, rounded, and notched instead of pointed, at the ex- 
tremity. 

The wood of black ash has the tough, heavy coarse- 
grained qualities of the white ash, but differs in being very 
durable and in being easily split into thin layers — each a 
year's growth. The Indians taught the early settlers to 
weave baskets out of black ash splints. These splints are 
easily separated by bending the split wood over a block. 
The strain breaks loose the tissue that forms the spring 
wood, and separates the bands of tough, dense summer 
wood into strips suitable for basket weaving. Black ash is 
used for chair seats, barrel hoops, furniture, and cabinet- 



THE ASHES 



205 



work. The saplings are oftenest chosen for hop and bean 
poles. 

As a lawn tree, the black ash has little to recommend it 
for it often dies of thirst in the loam of a garden. At best 
it is short-lived. Planted in swampy ground, the tree 
spreads by seeds, and suckers from the roots, soon forming 
extensive thickets, and drinking up the moisture at a mar- 
velous rate. 



The Red Ash 

F. Pennsylvanica, Marsh. 

The red ash follows the courses of streams and lake mar- 
gins from New Brunswick to the Black Hills and south into 
Florida, Alabama, and Nebraska. This tree is much 
planted for shade and ornament in New England, and in 
other Eastern sections. The tree is small, spreading into 
a compact though irregular head of twiggy, slender 
branches. The yellow-green foliage, a foot long, of seven 
to nine short, stalked, lustrous leaflets, is lightened by a 
pale pubescence on petioles and leaf-linings. The same 
velvety down covers the new shoots. Summer and winter 
this sign never fails. 

Red ash seeds are extremely long and slender, and have 
the most graceful outlines of all the darts that various ash 
trees bear. The heavy, round body has a wing twice its 
length by which the wind carries the seeds far away. Very 
gradually an ash tree launches its seeds. It is easy to 
understand why the family is so scattered through any 
woods, for the wind is the sower. The reddish bark of the 
twigs and trunk of this tree seems to be the justification for 
its name. Its brown wood is inferior to white ash. 



206 TREES 

The Green Ash 

F. Pennsylvanica, Variety lanceolata, Sarg. 

The green ash has narrower, shorter leaves than the parent 
species and usually more sharply saw-toothed margins. 
Instead of having pale linings, the leaflets are bright green 
on both surfaces. This is the ash tree of the almost treeless 
prairies from Dakota southward, where it not only lives, but 
flourishes as well as in its native habitat, the rich soil 
of stream banks farther east. Its range crosses the Rocky 
Mountains and reaches the slopes of the Wasatch Moun- 
tains in Utah. East of the Alleghanies the tree is little 
known. It is in the West that it is the dominant ash. 
It is one of the few important agencies which have turned 
the "Great American Desert" into a land of shady roads 
and comfortable, protected homesteads. 

The Blue Ash 

F. quadrangulata, Michx. 

The blue ash has four-angled twigs, often winged at the 
corners with a thin plate of bark. The sap contains a sub- 
stance that gives a blue dye when the inner bark is 
macerated in water. The tree reaches one hundred and 
twenty feet in height, above a slender trunk, and has small 
spreading branches that terminate in stout twigs, char- 
acteristically angled. 

The tree is occasionally cultivated in parks and gardens 
in the Eastern states where it is a distinct addition to the 
list of handsome shade trees. It is hardy, quick of growth, 
and unusually free from the ills that beset trees. In the 



THE ASHES 207 

forests it reaches its best estate on the limestone hills of 
the Big Smoky Mountains Its wood ranks with the best 
white ash and exceeds it in one particular; it is the most 
durable ash wood when exposed alternately to wet and 
dry conditions. It is used for vehicles, for flooring and 
for handles of tools especially pitchforks. 

The Oregon Ash 

F. Oregona, Nutt. 

The Oregon ash follows the coast south from Puget 
Sound to San Francisco Bay, and from the western foothills 
of the Sierra Nevada to those of the mountains of southern 
California. In southwestern Oregon the tree reaches the 
height of eighty feet, with a trunk three to four feet in di- 
ameter. The stout branches form a broad crown where 
there is room, and the luxuriant foliage is wonderfully light 
in color, pale green above, with silvery pubescent leaf- 
linings. Of the five to seven leaflets, all are sessile or 
short-stalked, except the terminal one, which has a 
stem an inch long. All are oval and abruptly pointed, 
thick and firm in texture, turning yellow or russet brown in 
autumn. The lumber is counted equal to white ash and is 
one of the most valuable of deciduous timber trees in the 
western coast states. 

A number of little ash trees, distinct in species from those 
described already, are native to limited sections of the 
country. All have the family traits by which they are 
readily recognized, if seed form, leaf form, and leaf arrange- 
ment are kept in mind. In the corner where Colorado, 
Nevada, and Utah meet, is an ash with its leaf reduced to a 
single leaflet, but the seeds are profusely borne to declare 



208 TREES 

the tree's name to any one who visits its restricted terri- 
tory. In rich soil, three leaflets are occasionally de- 
veloped. 

The European Aah 

F. Excelsior, Linn. 

The European ash is the large timber ash from the 
Atlantic Coast of Europe to western Asia. The earliest 
writers have ranked its wood next to oak in usefulness. It 
was known as "the husbandman's tree." Its uses were 
listed at interminable length, for "ploughs, axle-trees, 
wheel-rings, harrows, balls . . . oars, blocks for 
pulleys, tenons and mortises, poles, spars, handles, and 
stocks for tools, spade trees, carts, ladders. ... In 
short, so good and profitable is this tree that every prudent 
Lord of a Manor should employ one acre of ground with 
Ash to every twenty acres of other land, since in as many 
years it would be more worth than the land itself." 

The saplings, cut when three to six years old, made ex- 
cellent fork and spade handles on account of the toughness 
and pliability of their fibre. Crates for china were made 
of the branches. Steamed and bent, this wood lent itself 
to the making of hoops for barrels and kegs. The cutting 
off of the main trunk set the roots to sending up a forest of 
young shoots, ready for cutting again when they reached 
the size for walking-sticks and whip-stocks. 

Quite independent of its lumber value, but possibly 
correlated with it, was the great reputation the ash tree 
achieved in the myths and superstitions of widely sep- 
arated peoples. In south Europe, tradition declared that a 
race of brazen men sprung from the ash tree. In the North, 
the Norse mythology made Igdrasil, the ash, the "World 



THE ELMS 209 

tree," from whose roots the whole race of men sprung. The 
roots of this mythological tree penetrated the earth to its 
lowest depths and its giant top supported the heavens. 
Wisdom and knowledge gushed from its base as from 
a fountain, and underneath were the abodes of the 
gods, giants, and the Fates. Superstitions of all kinds 
have come down with the language of different peoples, 
making the history of the ash tree a most interesting 
study. 

A Chinese ash yields a valuable white wax which exudes 
from the bark of the twigs. F. ornus, Linn., native to 
south Europe and Asia Minor, exudes a waxy secretion 
from bark and leaves. This is the manna of commerce. 
Last but not least of the products of the ash tree are the 
curious and beautiful contortions of the grain found in 
" burls " on the trunks of old trees of many species. These 
warty excrescences are eagerly bought by special agents for 
cabinet-makers. Woodwork from these abnormal growths 
shows exquisitely waved lines when polished, as delicate as 
those in a banded agate. Fancy boxes, bowls, and other 
articles brought fancy prices when made of "ram's horn" 
or "fiddleback" ash, which often went under the trade 
name of green ebony. The black ash in America is par- 
ticularly subject to contortions of the grain. 



THE ELMS 

Elms of sixteen distinct species are native to boreal and 
temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with this 
single exception : western North America is without a rep- 
resentative. Europe has three species, two of which ex- 



210 TREES 

tend their range into eastern Asia and northern Africa. 
Southern and central Asia have their own species. Five 
are native to our Eastern states. Two European species 
are in cultivation in the North Atlantic states, especially 
in the neighborhood of Boston, where they are as familiar 
as the native species, in street planting. 

Elm trees are valuable for shade and for lumber; their 
wood is hard, heavy, tough, pale in color, often difficult 
to split. The trees are distinguished from others by 
their simple, unsymmetrical, strong-ribbed leaves, saw- 
toothed, short-stalked, always unequal and often oblique 
at the base of the blade. The flowers, usually perfect, are 
inconspicuous, and the seeds are flat, entirely surrounded 
by a thin papery wing, that forms two hooks at the tip. 
Wind-carried, these seeds have had much to do with 
the wide distribution of elms. 



The White Elm 

Ulmus Americana, Linn. 

The white or American elm is widely known as a tall, 
graceful wide-spreading tree, usually of symmetrical, 
vase shape, with slender limbs and drooping twigs. 
(See illustration, page 215.) It has the rough furrowed 
bark characteristic of the genus, dark or light gray, with 
paler branches and red-brown twigs. The leaves are 
alternate, two to six inches long, broadest near the 
abruptly pointed apex. Distinctly one-sided at the 
tapering base, the leaves have a fashion of arranging 
themselves in a flat spray so as to present almost a con- 
tinuous leaf area to the sun. One spray overlaps another, 



THE ELMS 211 

and leaves varying in size fit in to fill every little corner 
to which sunlight comes. This "leaf mosaic" is not con- 
fined to elms alone. It is especially noticeable on the 
southern border of any dense wood. 

Winter offers the best opportunity for the study of 
tree forms. Our common elm shows at least five different 
patterns. The first is the "vase form," the commonest 
and most beautiful. This is best realized by old trees 
which have had plenty of room. In it the branches spread 
gradually upward at first but at a considerable height 
sweep boldly out forming a broad, rounded, or flattened 
head. Second is the "plume form," in which two or 
three main limbs rise to a great height before branching, 
and then break into feathery spray. Trees crowded in 
woods are likely to take this form. Third, the "oak tree 
form" shows a horizontal habit of branching, and an 
angularity of limbs usually more noticeable among oaks, 
Fourth, the "weeping willow form," where trees have 
short trunks, from which the branches curve rapidly 
outward and end in long, drooping branchlets. Fifth is 
the "feathered elm," marked by a fringe of short twigs 
which outline the trunk and limbs. This "feathering" 
is caused by the late development of latent buds. It may 
occur in any of the tree types just mentioned, but it is 
more noticeable in individuals of the plume form. 

The American elm is very familiar for it grows every- 
where east of the Rocky Mountains. Not to know this 
tree is a mark of indifference and ignorance. No village 
of any pride but plants it freely as a street tree. It is 
hardy and cheerful, reflecting the indomitable spirit of 
the pioneer, whom it accompanied by seed and sapling 
from the Eastern states into the treeless territories of the 



%\% TREES 

Middle West. With him the tree seized the land and 
made it yield a living. Elms, which have outlived the 
cottonwoods and willows, are not so large yet as the 
patriarchal trees in old New-England villages, yet time 
alone is needed to match, in the valley of the Missouri, 
the elms in the valley of the Connecticut. 

I think, with due appreciation of its summer luxuriance 
of foliage, and the grace and strength of the elm's frame- 
work in winter, that the moment of greatest charm in the 
life of a roadside elm comes in the first warm days of late 
March. The brown buds on the sides of the twigs are 
swelling and a flush of purple overspreads the tree, while 
snow still covers the ground. A tremendous "fall of 
leaves" ensues, for the tiny bud scales that enclose the 
elm flowers are but leaves in miniature. The elms are in 
blossom! Each flower of each cluster has a calyx with 
scalloped edges, and a fringe of four to nine stamens hang- 
ing far out and surrounding the central solitary ovary. 
The color is in the yellow anthers and the dark red calyx 
lobes. 

Speedily, the stamens shrivel and pale green pendants, 
which are the seeds, cluster upon the twigs. Winged 
for flight, these ripen and are scattered before the leaves 
are fairly open, and the growth of the season's shoots 
begins. Only the pussy willow, the quaking asp, and the 
earliest maples bloom as early as the elm. How much 
they have missed, who never saw an elm tree in blossom! 

The hubs of the "oDe-hoss shay" were of "ellum," 
its interlacing fibres peculiarly fitting this wood for indes- 
tructibility. Saddle trees, boat timbers, cooperage, and 
flooring employ it in quantities. It is also used for flumes 
and piles, for it resists decay on exposure to water. 



THE ELMS 213 

The Slippery Elm 

U. fulva, Michx. 

The slippery elm is also known as the red elm and moose 
elm, because its wood is red and moose are fond of brows- 
ing its young shoots. In regions where moose are rarely 
seen, it is the small boy who browses and often utterly 
destroys every specimen of this valuable tree. Under the 
bark of young shoots a sweet substance is found, which 
gives the tree its common name. What man lives who 
in the heydey of youth has not had the spring craze for 
slippery elm bark, as surely as he had the fever for kite- 
flying and playing marbles? The trees in every fence 
row show the wounds of jack-knives; stripping the bark, 
the boys scrape from its inner surface the thick, fragrant 
mucilaginous cambium — a delectable substance that 
allays both hunger and thirst. Fortunately the bark of 
the limbs supplies the demand; many a veteran tree still 
suffers the pollarding process, serving one generation of 
schoolboys after another. 

The inner bark, dried and ground and mixed with milk, 
forms a valuable food for invalids. Poultices of slippery 
elm bark relieve throat and chest ailments. Fevers and 
acute inflammatory disorders are treated with the same 
bark, which has passed from the list of mere home remedies 
to an established place on the apothecary's shelf. 

How shall we tell a slippery elm tree from the American 
elm? By its leaf in summer. The roughness of the foliage 
is one of its striking characteristics. Crumple a leaf, and 
its surfaces grate harshly, for they are covered with stiff, 
tubercular hairs. The leaves are larger, often reaching 



214 TREES 

seven inches in length. There is a reddish or tawny 
pubescence on all young shoots, and especially on the 
bud scales in winter. The tree itself, in winter or summer, 
is much more coarse than its cousin. It is also unsymmet- 
rical in habit, each limb striking out for itself. Very often 
one meets a tree quite as one-sided in form as its leaf, 
and this without any apparent reason. But given a 
chance to grow without mutilation, the slippery elm at- 
tains a height of seventy feet, forming a broad, open head, 
in comparatively few years. It is well worth planting 
for its lumber and for shade. 



The Rock Elm 

U. Thomasi, Sarg. 

The rock elm or cork elm chooses dry, gravelly upland 
and low heavy clay soil, on rocky slopes and river cliffs, 
from Ontario and New Hampshire westward through 
northern New York, southern Michigan to Nebraska 
and Missouri. It is more abundant and of largest size 
in Ontario and in the southern peninsula of Michigan. 

Its leaf is small, thick, and firm, dark green, and turns to 
brilliant yellow in the autumn. Its flowers and fruits 
are borne in racemes. At any season, one knows this 
cork elm by the shaggy bark on its stout limbs that make 
the tree resemble a bur oak. "Rock elm" and "hickory 
elm" are names that refer to the hardness of the wood. 
The wheelwright counts it the best of all elms. Compact, 
with interlacing fibres, there are spring, strength, and 
toughness in this wood which adapt it for bridge timbers, 
heavy agricultural implements, wheel stocks, sills, and axe- 




X 




See page 222 



A GROUP OF WHITE PINES 




bee page 
LEAVES AND CONES OF THE SHORTLEAF PINE 




AMERICAN ELM 



See page 210 



THE ELMS 215 

handles. The name "cork elm" refers to the corky bark 
which runs out in winged ridges, even to the twigs. 



The Winged Elm 

U. alata, Michx. 

The winged elm, or wahoo, is dainty and small, its leaves 
and the two thin corky blades that arise on each twig 
befitting the smallest elm tree in the family. Despite its 
corky wings, it has none of the ruggedness of the cork elm, 
but is a pretty round-headed tree. It is distributed from 
Virginia to Florida and west to Illinois and Texas. 
"Mountain elm" and "small-leaved elm" are local 
names. "Wahoo" is local also, belonging chiefly to the 
South. Even the little seed of this tree is long and slender, 
its wing prolonged into two incurving hooks. 



The English Elm 

U. campestris, Linn. 

The English elm is often seen in the Eastern states, 
planted with the American elm in parks and streets, where 
the two species contrast strikingly. The English tree 
looks stocky, the American airily graceful. One stands 
heavily upon its heels, the other on tiptoe. One has a 
compact, pyramidal or oblong head, the other a loose open 
one. In October the superb English elms on Boston 
Common are still bright green, while their American 
cousins have passed into "the sere and yellow leaf." 



216 TREES 

The Scotch Elm 

U. montana, Linn. 

The Scotch or wych elm is planted freely in parks and 
private grounds. It is a medium-sized tree of rather more 
strict habit of growth than the American elm. Before 
the leaves open the tree often looks bright green from a 
distance. This appearance is due to the winged seeds 
which are exceptionally large and crowd the twig in great 
rosettes. 

One horticultural variety of this species is the weeping 
form known as the Camperdown elm, which arches its 
limbs downward on all sides, forming when full-grown 
a natural arbor. One often sees this tree planted on 
lawns of limited extent, and so near the street as to render 
utterly absurd its invitation to privacy. To serve that 
reasonable and delightful end, the tree should be planted 
in a retired corner of one's grounds, where an afternoon 
siesta may be enjoyed undisturbed. 



PART VIII 
THE CONE-BEARING EVERGREENS 

The Pines — The Spruces — The Firs — The Douglas 
Spruce — The Hemlocks — The Sequoias — The 
Abror-vit.es — The Incense Cedar — The Cypresses 
— The Junipers — The Larches, or Tamaracks 



The cone-bearers, or conifers, are a distinct race that we 
commonly call evergreens. They include pines, hemlocks, 
spruces, firs, sequoias, cypresses, cedars, and junipers. Be- 
sides these, the tamaracks and the bald cypress must be 
included, although their leaves are shed in the autumn. 
The term "evergreen" applies equally well to magnolias, 
laurels, and many oaks. Birches and alders and magno- 
lias bear cone-like fruits. Notwithstanding such excep- 
tions, the cone-bearing trees are mostly evergreen, and 
their family traits are so strongly marked that even the be- 
ginner in tree study eliminates the exceptional instances 
early in his studies. 

The pines and their relatives in the coniferous group are 
an ancient race, composed of proud old "first families." 
Along the shores of the Silurian seas they stood up, straight 
and tall, their only companions that stood erect, the giant 
horse-tails and tree ferns. This was long before modern 
tree families had any existence. There were no broad- 

217 



218 TREES 

leaved trees. In the coal measures are found the mum- 
mied remains of these prehistoric conifers. The cycads in 
the Everglades of Florida are some of their surviving repre- 
sentatives. These are facing extinction, and the conifers, 
too, are declining. They had reached their prime as a race 
when the broad-leaved trees appeared upon the earth. 
The vigor of the new race enabled it to seize the richest, 
well- watered regions. They drove the conifers to seek the 
swamps, the exposed seacoasts, the barren and rocky 
mountain slopes. Man has ruthlessly destroyed for tim- 
ber the coniferous forests of this country and much of the 
territory denuded by the axe is either devoted to agricul- 
ture or has been seized by broad-leaved species of trees, 
more tenacious of life and with seeds more quick and sure 
to germinate than those of the conifers. The time is not 
far distant, geologically speaking, when this ancient and 
declining family of trees will exist only as man fosters it by 
cultivation. 

The conifers have resinous wood, with stiff, needle-like 
or scale-like leaves, and inconspicuous flowers of two sorts, 
borne in clusters like catkins. The pistillate catkin 
matures into a woody cone made of overlapping scales at- 
tached to a central stem. On each scale are borne one or 
more winged seeds. 

The one character which is constant in the whole co- 
niferous group and sets it apart from the rest of the plant 
kingdom, is expressed in the name Gymnosperm, applied to 
this botanical grand division. It means "naked seed." 
There is no ovary in the flower. The naked ovules are 
borne on the scales of the fertile spike or catkin, which is 
held apart and erect in blossoming time. They are 
pollinated by the wind, which sifts them with golden pollen 



THE CONE-BEARING EVERGREENS 219 

dust, abundant in the staminate catkins clustered on the 
same tree. Contact of pollen grains and naked ovules is 
followed by their coalescence — the "setting of seeds." 

The distinguishing trait of the higher plants that form 
the grand division known as Angiosperms, is that the 
ovules are borne in a closed ovary, and the pollen lodges on 
the end of a stigma. "Pollen tubes" grow down through 
the long style, finally reach the hidden ovule, and seed is 
set. This complicated process is found in the majority of 
flowers one studies in botany classes. Gymnosperms, and 
the still lower groups of flowerless ferns and mosses, are 
merely glanced at by amateur botanists. The more prim- 
itive plant forms are too difficult for beginners. 

The habit of the conifers is a character upon which we 
may depend. With rare exceptions, there is a central 
shaft, "the leader," and short horizontal branches in 
whorls forming platforms. The side branches, also 
whorled, are generally flattened into a horizontal spray. 
The leaves are narrow, needle-like, or scale-like, and waxy 
or resinous. The tough fibre of the wood enables the coni- 
fers to resist damage by wind and by ice. Snowflakes sift 
to the ground instead of accumulating upon the branches 
and breaking them by their cumulative weight. The 
wind, which pollinated the fertile flowers of coniferous 
forests long before nectar-gathering insects came upon the 
earth, is the harvester of their seeds. It scatters them far 
and wide; each seed has a wing that adapts it to long 
journeys in front of a gale. 

The resinous sap that courses through the veins of conif- 
erous wood seals up the bark, leaves, and cones against the 
invasion of enemies, and acts as an antiseptic dressing for 
wounds. Without these special adaptations to a life of 






220 TREES 

hardship, the conifers would never have held their own as 
they have done. They inhabit regions where conditions 
discourage all but a few of the broad-leaved trees. 



THE PINES 

In a forest of needle-leaved evergreens it is perfectly easy 
to distinguish the pines by their leaves. Look along the 
twigs and you will find the needles arranged in bundles, 
with a papery, enclosing sheath at the base. Follow 
farther back and these sheaths are missing, but on long 
stretches between the growing tip and the leafless part of 
the branch the characteristic sheathed needle-bundles de- 
clare this evergreen to be a pine. No other conifer has 
this trait, no pine grows but shows it every day in the 
year. 

One half of the eighty known species of pines grow in 
North America. Pure forests of great extent are found in 
the Southern states, in the Great Lakes region, and on the 
mountain slopes in the western and northern parts of the 
continent. Smaller areas occur in the Eastern states. 
Very soon these forests must be spoken of in the past tense, 
for a century of destructive lumbering has almost cleared 
the Northeast of pine timber, and though the exploitation 
of the pine forests of the South and about the Great Lakes 
came later, as population increased in the Middle West, the 
work has progressed much more rapidly. The idea of for- 
est conservation, crystallized into federal law by popular 
demand, has come too late to save from wasteful exploita- 
tion the superb pine forests west of the Rockies. Yet 
thousands of acres of forests are now under government 



THE PINES €81 

control and here a great object lesson in rational methods 
of forest maintenance is being given. The pineries of 
the future depend upon the success of methods there em- 
ployed. 

The uses of pines are not all counted in terms of the 
lumberman. There are pines for every situation, soil, and 
climate. On low seaboard plains they come down to the 
highwater mark. They wade into inundated swamps and 
climb to the timber line on arid, rocky mountainsides. 
The bravest species go out into the desert. Almost as 
brave are those which survive the smoke and dust of cities 
like Pittsburg and St. Louis, though theirs is a losing fight 
with sulphurous fumes and cramped root space in the 
smoky town. As shelter belts, as windbreaks, as shade 
and ornamental trees, there are pines in cultivation in all 
parts of the country, their winter usefulness and beauty 
making them universally the choice of home-makers, rich 
and poor. 

By-products of pine wood are chiefly turpentine, pitch, 
resin, and oil, derived from the resinous sap. "Naval 
stores" these products are called, for their consumption is 
greatest in shipyards. Turpentine is extensively used in 
the arts and industries. If the Southern pine forests are 
allowed to dwindle, the deficit in lumber will not affect 
world commerce as disastrously as the cutting off of the 
naval stores production. 

The lumberman's division of the pines is a convenient 
one. "Soft pines" have soft, light wood, not heavily im- 
pregnated with resin. It is the delight of wood-workers. 
"Hard pines" have heavy, dark-colored wood, full of resin, 
which is a nuisance to the carpenter, because it "gums up" 
his tools. The one little siirn enables us to distinguish 



222 TREES 

hard and soft pines without examination of the wood. 
Soft pines shed the papery sheath of their leaf bundles be- 
fore the leaves themselves begin to fall. Hard pines re- 
tain the leaf sheath until the leaves are shed. A glance at 
any leafy pine branch will enable us to determine to which 
of the two classes a given tree belongs. 



The Soft Pines 

The outward and visible sign of a soft pine is the loose, 
deciduous sheath of its leaf bundles. The scales of its 
cones are usually unarmed with horns or prickles. The 
wood is soft, light colored, close-grained. The number of 
leaves in a bundle is the principal key to the species. 

The White Pine 

Firms Strobus, Linn. 

The white pine (see illustrations , pages 21 J^-215) is the only 
pine east of the Rocky Mountains that bears its leaves in 
bundles of five. This semi-decimal plan is found in three 
western soft pines and two western hard pines; but in the 
East, a native tree with needles in fives, leaves no doubt as 
to its name. From a distance this plan of five can be seen 
in the five branches that form a platform each year around 
the central shaft. 

Study a sapling pine and you see in its vigorous young 
growth the fulfillment of nature's plan, before storms have 
broken any of the branches and changed the mathematics 
of the pattern. Stroke the flexible, soft leaves that sway 
graceful and lithe in the wind. If it is spring, note that 



THE PINES 223 

the terminal bud has pushed out, and around it five-clus- 
tered buds are forming a circle of shoots. In autumn, after 
the season's growth is finished, each twig ends in a single 
bud, with a whorl of five buds around it. From the 
ground upward, count the platforms of branches. Each 
whorl of iive marks a year in the tree's growth. The 
terminal bud carries the height a foot or two upward, and 
its surrounding five buds grow in the horizontal plane, 
forming the last and smallest platform of leafy shoots. 
Each branch is a year younger than the shoot that bears it. 
Note throughout this little tree the plan of Hve, from leaf 
cluster to largest branch. 

Now go to the largest white pine in your neighborhood, 
study the plan of five in this tree, and find out the reason 
for any failures. Notice the conflict between the branches 
in the close platforms. Find branches where this conflict 
is in progress. Pick out the winner. Read the age of the 
tree by the platforms of branches on the trunk. 

No evergreen is more beautiful than a white pine grown 
in rich soil in a situation sufficiently sheltered to defend its 
supple branches from breakage by severe winds. Its soft, 
plume-like twigs are dark blue-green, with pale lines 
lining each individual leaf. The young shoots are yellow- 
ish green, and they lighten in a wonderful manner the 
sombre coloring of the older foliage. At the bases of the 
new shoots cluster the staminate catkins, in early June. 
Yellow and becoming loose and pendulous as the wind 
shakes them, they are soon empty of their abundant pollen, 
which drifts like gold dust and fills the air. Among the 
youngest leaves, toward the end of the shoot, the pur- 
plish rosy lips of the erect pistillate cone-flowers catch the 
dust from neighbor trees, and their naked ovules absorb it 



224 TREES 

and set seed. Close shut are the lips again, against any- 
other invasion, while these ovules mature. We shall find 
them standing erect until autumn, but next season they 
hang down with their added weight, and at the end of the 
second summer the scales change from green to brown, 
open and give their ripe winged seeds to the wind for dis- 
tribution. Because the tree is biennial-fruited, it always 
carries two sizes of cones. The large ones are one year 
older than the small ones. Ripe cones are five to ten 
inches long, with thin, broad, unarmed scales, squarish at 
the tips. 

The most hopeful phase of the white pine problem to-day 
is the fact that new forests are coming up naturally where 
the early lumbering deforested great tracts in the Eastern 
states. Careful forestry improves upon nature's method, 
and so the pines are being restored on land unfit for agri- 
cultural crops. White pine is one of the most profitable 
timber crops to plant at the present time. 

The Mountain Pine 

P. monticola, D. Don. 

The mountain pine is scattered through mountain forests 
from the Columbia River Basin in British Columbia to 
Vancouver Island, along the western slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains to northern Montana and Idaho, and south 
along the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges in Washing- 
ton and Oregon, well into California. From the bottom 
lands of streams, where it is most abundant and reaches a 
height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and a 
trunk diameter of five to eight feet, it climbs to elevations 
of eight to ten thousand feet on the California Sierras. 



THE PINES 225 

The bark of young trees and on the branches of old ones is 
smooth and pale-gray. The leaves, five in the bundles, 
range from one to four inches in length, stiff, blue-green, 
whitened by two to six stripes on the inner side. The 
cones are twelve to eighteen inches long, with thickened, 
pointed scales ending in an abrupt beak. The larger 
cone, denser, stiffer foliage, and the white bark make this 
white pine of the western mountains a great contrast to 
the Eastern white pine. 

Unlike many trees whose size diminishes with increase 
in altitude, this white pine grows to majestic size at alti- 
tudes of nearly two miles, its noble figure more striking 
and impressive because of the dwindling size of its com- 
panions on the mountain-sides. The lumberman looks 
with despair upon these giant white pines, quite out of his 
reach. 

In the Arnold Arboretum in Boston a fine seedling 
specimen of this western silver pine fruited when but 
twelve feet high, and proves vigorous and altogether happy 
in this absolutely changed climatic environment. In 
Europe the same success attends the cultivation of these 
trees, which have become very popular in parks and pri- 
vate grounds. Their introduction into our Eastern states 
can now be assured of success. 

The Sugar Pine 

P, Lambertiana, Dougl. 

The sugar pine (see illustration, page SSI) belongs in 
the class with those tree giants, the sequoias, with which 
it grows in the mountain forests of Oregon and California. 
John Muir calls it "the largest, noblest, and most beautiful 



226 TREES 

of all the pine trees in the world." Trees two hundred feet 
high, with trunk diameter of six to eight feet, are not un- 
common. The maximum given by Sargent is twelve 
feet across the stump. The head of a sugar pine is 
rounded and broad, with pendulous branches, tufted with 
stout, dark green leaves, three to four inches long. The 
cones are the largest known, reaching eighteen inches in 
length, rarely longer. The black or dark brown seeds are 
one to ^ve inches long, including the flat, blunt wings. 
Indians, bears, and squirrels gather the abundant harvest 
of these cones, which are rich in nutriment and pleasant 
to the taste. Crystals of sugar form white masses like 
rock candy, but with a taste of maple sugar, wherever a 
break in the bark of a sugar pine permits the escape of the 
sweet sap. This gives the tree its name. No other pine 
has sap with such a noticeable sugar content. 

Fortunately, these gigantic soft pines belong to the 
high Sierras and do not go down to the sea, where lumber- 
men could sacrifice them without effort. Nature has 
fenced them in by many barriers, and the government, by 
reservation in national parks, insures the preservation 
of some of the finest sugar pine groves, for the use and 
inspiration of all the people. 

A visit to Yosemite is the experience of a lifetime to 
any American. Here grow the most gigantic trees in the 
world, and the sugar pines are nobler even than the giant 
"big trees," for the latter are often decrepit, while the 
sugar pines are hale and youthful by comparison. Leaving 
behind the scrawny gray digger pines on the foothills, the 
traveler enters the belt of the yellow pines, on the higher 
elevations, and passing these he comes to the grand sugar 
pines along the highest level of the stage road that leads 



THE PINES 227 

into the National Park. The road is no wider than the 
broad stumps of sugar pines, scattered here and there. 
The standing trees amaze one with their height and 
girth. 

It is impossible to shake off the impression that some 
magic has put magnifiers in our eyes; for trees, beetling 
cliffs, and rushing cataracts are bigger than their counter- 
parts in other regions of the world far-famed for their 
scenery. The sugar pine trunks seem like great builded 
columns, too large for any real tree to grow, and the 
"big trees" in the Mariposa Grove intensify this im- 
pression of unreality. In a day or two the traveler be- 
comes accustomed to his surroundings. He goes out of 
the Park and down into the world of men and affairs, 
his soul enlarged, his life enriched by an experience he 
can never quite forget. He is a bigger, better man for his 
brief association with Nature in her noblest manifestations. 

The wood of the sugar pine is soft, golden, satiny, fra- 
grant, inviting the woodworker through every one of his 
senses. A single tree often yields five thousand dollars' 
worth of marketable lumber, the finest, straight-grained 
soft pine in the world. 

The shame of the century is the wanton destruction of 
sugar pine trees by vagrant shingle-makers and thieving 
mill-owners, who despoiled the grandest trunks of their 
choicest wood, wastefully leaving the bulk to cumber the 
ground and invite forest fires. Late and slowly, but surely 
also is the popular mind awakening to the fact that forests 
belong to the nation and should be conserved and main- 
tained for the whole people — not wasted for the temporary 
enrichment of private owners, as forest wealth has boon 
squandered in past years. 






228 TREES 

Rocky Mountain White Pine 

P.flexilis, James 

The Rocky Mountain white pine inhabits mountain 
slopes from Alberta to Mexico, including the Sierra Neva- 
da range. In northern New Mexico and Arizona it 
occasionally reaches eighty feet in height, but ordinarily 
does not exceed fifty. Its rounded dome, as broad as an 
oak, bravely dares the wind on exposed cliffs, and crouches 
as a stunted shrub at altitudes of twelve thousand feet. 
The "limber pine" it is called, from the toughness of its 
fibre, which alone enables its long limbs to sustain the 
whipping they get. The leaves form thick, beautiful 
dark-green tufts, which are not shed until the fifth or sixth 
year. The cones are three to ten inches long, purplish; 
scales rounded, abruptly beaked at the apex; narrow wings 
entirely surround the seeds, which fall in September. 

This is the lumber pine of the semi-arid ranges of "The 
Great American Desert"; the main dependence of builders, 
too, on the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Montana. 



The White-bark Pine 

P. albicauliSy Engelm. 

The white-bark pine is a rippled, gnarled, squatting 
tree, whose matted branches, cumbered with needles and 
snow, make a platform on which the hardy mountain- 
climber may walk with safety in midwinter. It offers 
him a springy mattress for his bed, as well. The trunk 
is covered with snowy bark that glistens like the ice- 



THE PINES 229 

mantle that lies on the treeless mountain-side just above 
the timber line. 

From a twelve-thousand-foot elevation on the Rocky 
Mountains, in British Columbia and south to the Yellow- 
stone, the tree clambers down to the five-thousand-foot 
line, where it sometimes attains forty feet in height; its 
dark green, rigid leaves persist from five to eight years, 
always five in a bundle, and never more than two and a 
half inches long. The cones, horny-tipped, dark purple, 
one to three inches long, are ripe in August; the large sweet 
seeds are gathered and eaten by Indians. In California the 
tree's range extends into the San Bernardino Mountains. 

THE TWO "FOXTAIL" PINES 

Two Western pines are distinguished by the common 
name "foxtail pine," because the leaves are crowded on 
the ends of bare branchlets. P. Balfouriana, M. Murr., 
has stiff, stout dark green leaves with pale linings. The 
tree is wonderfully picturesque when old, with an open 
irregular pyramid, on the higher foothills of the California 
mountains, or crouching as an aged straggling shrub at 
the timber-line. Its cones are elongated, the scales thick- 
ened and minutely spiny at tip. 

The second five-leaved foxtail pine is P. aristata, En- 
gelm., also called the "prickle-cone pine," from the curving 
spines that arm the scales of the purplish brown fruits. 
This is a bushy tree, with sprawling lower branches and 
upper ones that stand erect and are usually much longer, 
giving the tree a strange irregularity of form. The leaves 
are short and crowded in terminal brushes. From a stocky 
tree forty feet high, to a shrub at the timber line, this tree 



230 TREES 

is found near the limit of tree growth, from the outer 
ranges of the mountains of Colorado to those of southern 
Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona and southeastern Cali- 
fornia. In Eastern parks it is occasionally seen as a 
shrubby pine with unusually interesting, artistic cones. 

THE NUT PINES 

The nut pines, four in number, supply Indians and 
Mexicans of the Southwest with a store of food in the 
autumn, for the seeds are large and rich in oils and 
they have keeping qualities that permit their hoarding 
for winter. The four-leaved P. quadrifolia., Sudw., 
scattered over the mountains of southern and Lower 
California, has four leaves in a cluster, as a rule. A desert 
tree, its foliage is pale gray-green, harmonizing with the 
arid mesas and low mountain slopes, where it is found. 
The cones are small with few scales, but the nut is five- 
eighths of an inch long and very rich. 

P. cembroides, Zucc, with two to three leaves, is the 
"pinon," that covers the upper slopes of Arizona moun- 
tains with open forests fifteen to twenty feet high. The 
leaves are one to two inches long, dark green with pale 
ines, the branchlets orange-colored and matted with 
hairs. The large nuts are very oily, and so abundant in 
the mountains of northern Mexico that they are sold in 
large quantities in every town. 

The pinon (P. edulis, Engelm.) ranges from the eastern 
foothills of the Colorado Rockies to western Texas and 
westward to the eastern borders of Utah, southwestern 
Wyoming, central Arizona and on into Mexico, often 
forming extensive open forests, and reaching an elevation 







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THE PINES 231 

of seven thousand feet. Short, stiff leaves in clusters 
of two or three, dark green, ridged, stout, often persist 
for eight or nine years. The tree is a broad compact 
pyramid; in age, dense, round-topped, with stout branch- 
lets and abundant globose cones. Each scale covers two 
seeds, wingless, about the size of honey locust seeds, oily, 
sweet, nutritious and of delicious flavor. This is the 
pine nut par excellence, whose newest market is among 
confectioners and fancy grocers throughout the states. 

The one-leaved nut pine (P. monophylla, Torr.), spreads 
like an old apple tree, and forms a low, round-topped, pictur- 
esque head, its lower limbs drooping to the ground. The 
reduction of the leaves in the clusters to lowest terms, gives 
the tree a starved look, and the eighteen or twenty rows of 
pale stomates on each leaf give the tree-top a ghostly pal- 
lor. The vigor of the tree is expressed in its abundant 
fruit, short, oblong, one to two inches in length, with rich 
plump brown seeds upon which the Indians of Nevada and 
California have long depended. The wood supplies fuel 
and charcoal for smelters; and this stunted tree, rarely 
over twenty feet in height, forms nut orchards for the 
aborigines and the scattered population of whatever 
race, between altitudes of five and seven thousand feet. 
From the western slopes of the Wasatch Mountains of 
Utah, it ranges to the eastern slopes of the southern 
Sierra Nevada, to their western slopes at the head waters of 
King's River, and southward to northern Arizona and to 
the mountains of southern California. 

John Muir savs: 



"It is the commonest tree of the short mountain ranges 
of the Great Basin. Tens of thousands of acres are cov- 



232 



TREES 



ered with it, forming bountiful orchards for the red man. 
Being so low and accessible, the cones are easily beaten off 
with poles, and the nuts are procured by roasting until the 
scales open. To the tribes of the desert and sage plains 
these seeds are the staff of life. They are eaten either raw 
or parched, or in the form of mush, or cakes, after being 
pounded into meal. The time of nut harvest is the 
merriest time of the year. An industrious, squirrelish 
family can gather fifty or sixty bushels in a single month 
before the snow comes, and then their bread for the winter 
is sure." 



THE PITCH PINES 

Pitch pines have usually heavy coarse-grained, dark- 
colored wood, rich in resin — a nuisance to the carpenter. 
The leaf -bundles have persistent sheaths. The cone scales 
are thick and usually armed. "Hard pine" is a car- 
penter's synonym. The group includes some of the most 
valuable timber trees in American forests. 

The Longleaf Pine 

P. palustris, Mill. 

The longleaf pine is preeminent in importance in the 
lumber trade and in the production of naval stores. It 
stretches in a belt about one hundred and twenty-five 
miles wide, somewhat back from the coast, all the way 
from Virginia to Tampa Bay and west to the Mississippi 
River. Isolated forests are scattered in northern Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, and Texas. 

The trees are tall, often exceeding one hundred feet in 
height; with trunks slender in proportion, rarely reaching 
three feet in diameter. The narrow, irregular head is 
formed of short stout twisted limbs on the upper third of 



THE PINES 233 

the trunk. The leaves are from twelve to eighteen inches 
long, forming dense tufts at the ends of the branches. 
Being flexible they droop and sway on the ends of erect 
branches like shining fountains, their emerald lightened 
by the silvery sheaths that invest each group of three. 

Sapling longleaf pines have recently entered the market 
for Christmas greens in Northern cities. This threatens 
the renewal of longleaf forests that have fallen to the axe of 
the lumberman. Unless Federal restriction comes to the 
rescue, there is little hope of saving this young growth, for 
nothing can exceed in beauty a three-foot sapling of long- 
leaf pine as a Christmas decoration. 

The lumber of this species is the "Southern pine" of the 
builder. Heavy, strong, yellowish brown, durable, it has 
a tremendous vogue for flooring and the interior finish of 
buildings. It is used in the construction of railway cars. 
Its durability in contact with water accounts for its use in 
bridge-building, and for masts and spars of vessels. A 
great deal of this lumber is exported for use in European 
shipyards. It has replaced the dwindling supply of white 
pine for building purposes throughout the North, and the 
strong demand for it has been followed by lumbering of the 
most destructive and wasteful type, because the forests are 
owned privately. 

In the early days the American colonists in Virginia 
tapped the longleaf pine, collected the resin from the 
bleeding wounds, and boiled it down for pitch and tar. 
These crude beginnings established an industry now known 
as the "orcharding" of the longleaf pine. After a century 
of wastefulness and wanton destruction of the trees, it has 
become patent to all that scientific methods must be re- 
sorted to in the production of turpentine and other pro- 



234 



TREES 



ducts derived from the living trees. Otherwise the dwind- 
ling industry will soon come to an end. 

Resin is the sap of the tree. The first problem is to 
draw it in a manner least wasteful of the product, and least 
dangerous to the life of the tree. The second process is the 
melting of the collected resin in a still and the drawing off 
of the volatile turpentine. What is left solidifies and is 
known as rosin. 

"Boxing" the trees was the cutting of a grooved incision 
low on the trunk, with a hollow at the base of the vertical 
trough to hold the discharge of the bleeding sap-wood. 
Resin-gatherers visited the tapped trees and emptied the 
pockets into buckets by means of a ladle. They also 
scraped away the hardened sap and widened the wounds to 
induce the flow from new tissues. This method cost the life 
of the tree in two or three years, and it became a prey to 
disease and a menace to the whole forest, as fuel for fires 
accidentally started. Nowadays, all reasonable owners of 
longleaf pine have discarded the old-fashioned boxing and 
installed methods approved by the Department of 
Forestry. 

Tar was formerly derived from the slow burning of wood 
in a clay-lined pit. The branches, roots and other lumber 
refuse, cut in small sizes were heaped in a compact mound 
and covered with sods and earth. Smoldering fires soon in- 
duced a flow of smoky tar, thick as molasses, in the bottom 
of the pit. In due time the flow ceased, the fires went out, 
and charcoal was the result of this slow burning. Remov- 
ing the charcoal, the tar became available for various pur- 
poses; boiled until it lost its liquid character, it became 
tough sticky pitch. This primitive pit method of extract- 
ing tar and making charcoal has been abandoned wherever 



THE PINES 235 

intelligence governs the industry, and distillation processes 
have been installed. 

The Shortleaf Pine 
P. echinata, Mill. 

The shortleaf pine ranks second to the longleaf in im- 
portance to the lumber industries of the East and South. 
It ranges from Staten Island, New York, to north Florida, 
and west through West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, 
southern Missouri, Louisiana and eastern Texas. It 
reaches its largest size and greatest abundance west of the 
Mississippi River, where great forests, practically un- 
touched thirty years ago, have become the centre of the 
"yellow pine" industry, out of which vast fortunes have 
been made. The wood is preferred by builders, because it 
is less rich in resin, softer and therefore more easily worked. 
Young trees yield turpentine and pitch, and with the long- 
leaf and the Cuban pine much forest growth has suffered 
destruction in the production of these commodities. 

The slender tree equals the longleaf in height and bears 
its dark green leaves in clusters of twos and threes, scat- 
tered on short branches that form a narrow loose head. 
The pale green, stout branchlets are lightened by the silvery 
sheaths of the young leaves (see illustrations, pages 21J+-215) 
which are short only in comparison with the companion 
species, the longleaf. The cones are abundant; the seeds 
numerous, winged for flight, retaining their vitality longer 
than most pine seeds. The tree is less sensitive to in- 
juries and has the propensity, unusual in the pine family, 
of throwing up suckers from the roots. In open com- 
petition, this pine will hold its own against the invasion of 



236 



TREES 



other trees, if only allowed to do so. Much of the de- 
forested territory, let alone, will cover itself with a ripe 
crop of shortleaf pine lumber in a hundred years. 



The Cuban Pine 
P. Caribaea, Morelet 

The Cuban pine stands third in the triumvirate of lum- 
ber pines of the South. This is the "swamp pine" or 
"slash pine," found in the coast regions from South Caro- 
lina throughout Florida, and along the Gulf Coast to the 
Pearl River in Louisiana. It is a beautiful pine — tall, 
with dense crown of dark green leaves, in twos and threes, 
eight to twelve inches long, falling at the end of their 
second season, before they lose their brightness. A large 
part of the turpentine of commerce has been derived from 
these coast forests, as well as lumber, which takes its 
place in the Northern market with the longleaf and the 
shortleaf. 

Natural reforestation has taken place in the Southeast, 
and a large part of the turpentine exported by Georgia and 
South Carolina to-day, is from second-growth Cuban pine, 
on land from which the lumber companies have stripped 
the virgin growth. 

The Loblolly Pine 

P. Taeda, Linn. 

The loblolly or old field pine chooses land generally sterile 
and otherwise worthless. It grows in swamps along the 
Atlantic coast, from New Jersey through the Carolinas, 
and follows the Gulf from Tampa Bay into Texas. In- 
land, it is found from the Carolinas to Arkansas and 



THE PINES 237 

Louisiana. It has remarkable vitality of seed and seed- 
lings, which do equally well on sterile uplands, on water- 
soaked ground, or where soil is light and sandy. It is very 
apt to take possession of land once cleared for agriculture. 
The young trees crowd together and grow with tre- 
mendous vigor the first years of their lives, successfully 
holding large tracts in pure forests. The limbs are short, 
thick, matted, forming a compact rounded head; the leaves 
slender, stiff, twisted, pale-green, six to nine inches long, in 
groups of threes. The wood is rich in resin, but differs 
greatly in quality with age and the fertility of the soil. 
"Rosemary pine" was heavy, hard, close-grained, with a 
thin rim of soft sap-wood. This famous lumber, preferred 
by shipbuilders of many countries for masts, grew in the 
virgin forest of the Carolinas. Giants were cut in the rich 
marsh lands back from the Sounds. But the small lob- 
lolly pine, grown on sandy soil, is but third-grade lumber, 
the sap-wood three times as thick as the heart- wood and ex- 
ceedingly coarse-grained. One merit has recently been 
discovered in this lumber, that formerly blackened before 
it was seasoned, by the invasion of a fungous growth. It 
quickly absorbs creosote, which renders it immune from 
decay. It is used in the building of docks, cars, boats, and 
locally in house-building. Its wood makes a sharp, quick 
heat when dried. It is used in bakeries and brick kilns, 
and in charcoal-burning. 

The Pitch Pine 

P. rigida, Mill. 

The pitch pine goes down to the very water's edge on the 
sand-dunes along the New-England Coast, and spreads on 



238 



TREES 



worthless land from New Brunswick to Georgia and west 
to Ontario and Kentucky. Occasionally in cultivation the 
tree is symmetrical, and grows to considerable size. In the 
most favorable situations, however, it rarely exceeds fifty 
feet in height, with gnarled rough branches, oftenest irreg- 
ular in form and becoming painfully grotesque with age. 
The persistence of its clustered black cones adds to the 
tree's ugliness; and the tufted, scant foliage has a sickly 
yellowish-green color when new, and becomes darker and 
twisted the second year. The cones are armed with stout 
thorns and often remain on the trees ten or twelve years. 
The knots, particularly, are rich in resin — the delight of 
camping parties. "Pine-knots" and "candle wood" are 
household necessities in regions where these trees are the 
prevailing species of pine. 

Starved as is its existence, the pitch pine springs up with 
amazing vigor after a fire. Suckers are sent up about the 
roots of the fire-killed trees, and the wind scatters the seeds 
broadcast for a new crop. The chief merit of the tree is 
that it grows on worthless land, and holds with its gnarled 
roots the shifting sand-dunes of the New-England Coast 
better than any other tree. 



The Gray Pine 

P. divaricata, Sudw. 

The gray pine goes farther north than any other pine, 
following the McKenzie River to the Arctic Circle. From 
Nova Scotia to the Athabasca River, it covers barren 
ground, reaching its greatest height, seventy feet, in pure 
forests north of Lake Superior. In Michigan it forms the 
"jack-pine plains " of the Lower Peninsula. As a rule it is 



THE PINES 239 

a crouching, sprawling tree, its twigs covered with scant 
short dingy leaves in twos, averaging an inch in length. 
The wood is a great boon to the regions this tree inhabits. 
It is light, soft, weak, and close-grained; used for posts, rail- 
road ties, building material and fuel. Its seeds germinate 
better from cones that have been scorched by fire. 

The Digger Pine 

P. Sabiniana, Dougl. 

The digger pine is a western California tree of the semi- 
arid foothill country. Gray-green, sparse foliage on the 
gnarled branches gives the tree a forlorn starved look, 
as it stands or crouches, singly or in scattered groups, 
along the gravelly sun-baked slopes. The great cones, 
six to ten inches long, fairly loading the branches, express 
most emphatically the vigor of the tree. The thickened 
scales protrude at a wide angle from the central core, and 
each bears a strong beak, triangular, flattened like a 
shark's tooth, but curved. The rich oily nuts, as big as 
lima beans, furnish a nourishing food to the Indians. 
The Digger tribe harvested these nuts, and the pioneer 
gave the tree the tribal name. 

The Western Pitch Pine 

P. Coulteri, D. Don. 

The Western pitch pine, most abundant in the San 
Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, at elevations 
of about a mile above the sea, has cones not unlike those 
of the digger pine, in the armament of their scales. 
These are notable by being the heaviest fruits borne by 



240 



TREES 



any pine tree. Occasionally they exceed fifteen inches in 
length and weigh eight pounds. The seeds are one-half 
an inch in length, not counting the thin wing, which is 
often an inch long. 

The leaves of this "big-cone'' pine match the cones. 
They are stout, stiff, dark blue-green, six to sixteen inches 
long, three in a bundle, which has a sheath an inch or more 
in length. Crowded on the ends of the branches, these 
leaves would entitle this tree to qualify as a "fox-tail" 
pine, except for the fact that the foliage persists into the 
third and fourth year, which clothes the branches far 
back toward the trunk and gives the tree a luxuriant 
crown. The dry slopes and ridges of the Coast Ranges of 
California are beautified by small groves and scattered 
specimens of this striking and picturesque pine, so unlike 
its neighbors. Its wood is used only for fuel. In Euro- 
pean countries this is a popular ornamental pine, planted 
chiefly for its great golden-brown cones. 



The Knob-cone Pine 

P. attenuata, Lemm. 

The knob-cone pine inhabits the Coast Ranges from the 
San Bernardino Mountains northward on the western 
slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains, 
into southwestern Oregon, where it forms pure forests 
over large areas, its altitude limit being four thousand 
feet. It is a tall slim tree of the hot dry fire-swept foot- 
hills, and it comes again with absolute certainty after 
forest fires. The clustered cones, three to six inches long, 
are amazingly hard and do not open at maturity, but wait 
for the death of the tree. Leaves three to seven inches 



THE PINES 241 

long, in clusters of three, firm, rigid, pale yellow or bluish 
green, cover the tree with a sparse thin foliage-mass; 
but the branches, new and old, are covered with cones, 
many of which are being swallowed up by the growth 
of wood on trunk and limb. Thirty or forty years these 
cones may hang, their seeds never released and never losing 
their vitality, until fire destroys the tree. Then the scales 
open and the winged seeds are scattered broadcast. 
They germinate and cover the deforested slopes with a 
crop of knob-cone pine saplings that soon claim all stand- 
ing room and cover the scars of fire completely. 



The Monterey Pine 

P. radiata, D. Don. 

The Monterey pine, like its companion, the Torrey pine, 
is restricted to a very narrow area. They grow together 
on Santa Rosa Island. At Point Pinos, south of Monterey 
Bay, this tree stands a hundred feet in height, with trunks 
occasionally five to six feet in diameter, its branches 
spreading into a round luxuriant, though narrow, head. 
From Pescadero to San Simeon Bay, in a narrow belt a 
few miles wide, and on the neighboring islands, this 
tree finds its limited natural range; but the horticulturist 
has noted the silvery sheen of its young growth and the 
rich bright green that never dulls in its foliage. Its quick 
growth and handsome form in cultivation make it the 
most desirable pine for park and shade planting in Califor- 
nia. Indeed it is a favorite park tree north to Vancouver 
along the Coast. It has been introduced into Europe 
and is occasionally met in parks in the Southeastern states. 



242 



TREES 



The Western Yellow Pine 

P. jponderosa, Laws. 

The Western yellow pine forms on the Colorado Plateau 
the most extensive pine forests of the American continent. 
Mountain slopes, high mesas, dry canyon sides, even 
swamps, if they occur at elevations above twenty-five 
hundred feet, furnish suitable habitats for this amazing 
species, in some of its varying forms. From British 
Columbia and the Black Hills it follows the mountains 
through the Coast Ranges, Sierras, and the Great Conti- 
nental Divide, to the highlands of Texas and into Mexico, 
forming the most extensive pine forests in the world. 
All sorts of construction work draw upon this wonderful 
natural supply of timber, from the droughty western 
counties of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Texas, to the 
Pacific Coast. 

The typical tree has thick plates of cinnamon-red bark, 
a massive trunk, five to eight feet in diameter, one hundred 
to two hundred feet high, with many short, thick, forked 
branches in a spire-like head. In arid regions the trunk 
is shorter and the head becomes broad and round-topped. 
Near the timber line and in swamps, the trees are stunted 
and the bark is nearly black. 

The leaves of this pine tree are two or three in a bundle, 
stout, dark yellow-green, five to eleven inches long, decid- 
uous during their third season. Their color has given the 
name to the species, for the wood is not yellow, but light 
red, with nearly white sap-wood. 

On the way to the Yosemite, the traveler meets the 
yellow pine — splendid tracts of it — with the giant sugar 



THE PINES 243 

pine, in open park-like areas, where each individual tree 
has room to manifest the noble strength of its tall shaft. 

The flowers appear in May, brightening the even color 
of the shiny leaves with their pink or brown staminate 
clusters two or three inches wide. The crimson pistillate 
cones hide at the ends of the branches, lengthening into 
fruits three to ten inches in length, and half as wide. 
Strong, re-curving tips, armed with slender prickles, are 
seen in the scales of the reddish-brown cones that fall soon 
after they spread and liberate the winged seeds. These are 
produced in abundance, are scattered widely by the wind, 
and accomplish the renewal of these mountain forests. 

The bark is usually very thick at the bases of the trunks, 
reaching eighteen inches on the oldest trees. With this 
cloak wrapped about its living cambium, the yellow pine 
is able, better than most trees, to survive a sweeping 
forest fire. 

Botanists have found P. ponderosa extremely variable, 
and they quarrel among themselves about species and 
variety, for the tree endures many climates, adapts itself 
to varying conditions and develops a type for each 
habitat and region. In old lake basins on the Sierra 
slopes, "variety Jeffreyi, Vasey," is the name given to the 
gigantic yellow pine, which there finds food and moisture in 
abundance and reaches its finest proportions and its 
greatest lumber value. 

In the Rocky Mountains, "variety scopidoram, En- 
gelm.," is the type. "But all its forms can be traced to a 
common origin and so the parent species stands; and 
despite man's devastating axe the yellow pine flourishes 
in the drenching rains and fog of the northern coast at 
the level of the sea, in the snow-laden blasts of the moun- 



244 



TREES 



tains, in the white glaring sunshine of the interior plateaus 
and plains, and on the borders of mirage-haunted deserts, 
volcanoes, and lava beds, — waving its bright plumes in 
the hot winds undaunted, blooming every year for cen- 
turies, and tossing big ripe cones among the cinders and 
ashes of nature's hearths." {John Muir.) 



The Scrub Pine 

P. contorta, Loud. 

The scrub pine is the humble parent of one of the splen- 
did Western lumber pines, whose description comes under 
its varietal name. Down the coast of Alaska, usually in 
sphagnum bogs, on sand-dunes, in tide-pools and deep 
swamps to Cape Mendocino, the indomitable, altogether- 
admirable scrub pine holds its own against cold, salt air 
and biting arctic blasts. No matter how stunted, gnarly 
and round-shouldered these trees are, one thing they do, 
often when only a few inches high: they bear cones, and 
keep them for years; and each season add more. Up 
from the sea the scrub pine climbs, ascending the Coast 
Ranges and western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, 
changing its habit to a tree twenty to thirty feet tall with 
thick branches and dark red-brown bark, checked into 
oblong plates. Gummy exudations of this pitch pine 
make it peculiarly liable to running fires. Thousands 
of acres are destroyed every summer, but they seize the 
land again and soon cover it with the young growth. 
This happens because the burned trees drop their cones, 
which open and set free the seeds which have never lost 
their vitality. 

In all the vast region over which this vagrant tree 



THE PINES 245 

swarms, it furnishes firewood and shelter. The pioneer 
blesses it, and a great multitude of wild things, both plant 
and animal, maintain their lives in comfort and security 
because of its protection. 

The lodge-pole pine or tamarack pine is but a variety 
(Murrayana) of P. contorta, that grows in forests on both 
slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, 
at elevations of from seven to eight thousand feet, and 
stretches away into British Columbia and Alaska, and 
southward to the San Jacinto Range. Between eight 
thousand and nine thousand five hundred feet in altitude, 
along the Sierra Nevada in California, it reaches its great- 
est size and beauty, and forms extensive dense forests. 
The young trees have very slender trunks, and often stand 
crowded together like wheat on the prairie. An average 
forest specimen is five inches in diameter, when thirty 
or forty feet in height. No wonder the Indian in Wyo- 
ming and Colorado called it "the lodge-pole pine," for 
their supple trunks fitted these trees, while yet saplings, 
to support the lodge he built. 

Richer, moister ground nourishes this fortunate off- 
spring of the scrub pine. The two-leaved foliage, usually 
about two inches long, wears a cheerful yellow-green, while 
the parent tree is dark and sombre, with leaves an 
inch in length. The hard, strong, brown wood of con- 
torta contrasts strikingly with that of its variety, which is 
light yellow or nearly white — soft, weak, straight-grained 
and easily worked. Its abundance in regions where other 
timber is scarce, brings it into general use for construction 
work. It also furnishes railroad ties, mine timbers and 
fuel, with the minimum of labor, since trunks of proper 
sizes can easily be selected. 



246 



TREES 



The Indians, whose food supply was always precarious, 
gathered branches and made a soft pulp of the inner bark, 
scraped out in the growing season. This they baked, after 
shaping it into huge cakes, in pit ovens built of stones, and 
heated for hours by burning in them loads of fire- wood. 
When the embers were burned out, the oven was cleaned 
and the cakes put in. Later they were smoked with a 
damp fire of moss, which preserved them indefinitely. 
"Hard bread" of this type provisioned the Indian's canoe 
on long trips. Inedible until boiled, it was a staple winter 
food at home and on long expeditions, among various 
tribes of the Northwest. 



The Red Pine 

P. resinosa, Ait. 

The red pine, also called the "Norway pine" for no par- 
ticular reason, is something of an anomaly. Its wood is 
soft like that of the white pine with which it grows, and 
though resinosa means "full of resin," it is not so rich as 
several other pitch pines. Its paired leaves and red bark 
reveal its kinship with the Scotch pine, a European species, 
very common in cultivation in America. 

Seemingly intermediate between soft and hard pines, 
P. resinosa appeals to lumbermen and landscape gardeners 
because it embodies the good points of both classes. No 
handsomer species grows in the forests, from New Bruns- 
wick to Minnesota and south into Pennsylvania. The 
sturdy red trunk makes a bright color contrast with the 
broad symmetrical pyramid of boughs clothed in abundant 
foliage. The paired, needle-like leaves, dark green and 
shining, are six inches in length. The flowers are abund- 



r 




See page 
THE SPINY FOLIAGE AND FAST-CLINGING CONES 
OF THE BLACK SPRUCE 



THE SPRUCES 247 

ant and bright red, more showy than is ordinary in the pine 
family. Brown cones one to three inches long with thin 
unarmed scales, discharge their winged seeds in early 
autumn, but cling to the branches until the following 
summer. 

The wood of red pine is pale red, light in weight, closer 
grained with yellowish or nearly white sap-wood. Logs a 
hundred feet and more in length used to be shipped out of 
Canadian woods to England. Singularly free from large 
knots and other blemishes, they made huge spars and 
masts of vessels, as well as piles for dockyards, bridges, 
etc. Other woods have proved more durable, and the 
largest red pine timber has been harvested. So its im- 
portance in the lumber trade has declined. 

But in cultivation the red pine holds its own for its quick 
growth, its hardiness, its lusty vigor and its beauty of color 
contrasts. It grows on sterile ground exposed to the sea, 
forming groves of great beauty where other pines would 
languish and die. For shelter belts, inland, it is equally 
dependable, and as specimen trees in parks and gardens it 
has few equals. At no season of the year does it lose its 
fresh look of health. Young trees come readily from seed, 
and throughout their lives they are unusually free from in- 
juries by insects and fungi. 



THE SPRUCES 

The distinguishing mark of spruce trees is the woody or 
horny projection on which the leaf is set. Look at the 
twigs of a tree which you think may be a fir or a spruce. 
Wherever the leaves have fallen, the spruce twig is rough- 



248 TREES 

ened by these spirally arranged leaf -brackets. Leaf -scars 
on a fir twig are level with the bark, leaving the twig 
smooth. Spruce twigs are always roughened, as described 
above. 

Most spruce trees have distinctly four-angled leaves, 
sharp-pointed and distributed spirally around the shoot, 
not two-ranked like fir leaves. They are all pyramidal 
trees with flowers and fruits of the coniferous type. The 
cones are always pendent and there is an annual crop. The 
wood is soft, not conspicuously resinous, straight-grained 
and valuable as lumber. 

The genus picea comprises eighteen species, seven of 
which belong to American forests. These include some 
of the most beautiful of coniferous trees. 

The Norway Spruce 

Picea excelsa, Link. 

The Norway spruce (see illustration, page 2^6) is the 
commonest species in cultivation. It is extensively 
planted for wind-breaks, hedges and shelter belts, where 
its long lower arms rest on the ground and the upper limbs 
shingle over the lower ones, forming a thick leafy shelter 
against drifting snow and winds. 

The Black Spruce 

P. Mariana, B. S. & P. 

The black spruce is a ragged, unkempt dingy tree, with 
short drooping branches, downy twigs, and stiff dark blue- 
green foliage, scarcely half an inch long. Its cones, least 
in size of all the spruce tribe, are about one inch long and 



THE SPRUCES 249 

they remain on the branches for years (See illustration, 
page 2^7). 

Rarely higher than fifty feet, these scraggly undersized 
spruces are ignored by horticulturists and lumbermen, but 
the wood-pulp man has taken them eagerly. The soft 
weak yellow wood, converted into paper, needs very little 
bleaching. From the far North the species covers large 
areas throughout Canada, choosing cold bogs and swamp 
borders, or well-drained bottom lands. In the United 
States it extends south along the mountains to Virginia 
and to central Wisconsin and Michigan. 

The Red Spruce 

P. rubensy Sarg. 

The red spruce forms considerable forests from New- 
foundland to North Carolina, following the mountains and 
growing best in well-drained upland soil. This Eastern 
spruce is more deserving of cultivation than the one just 
described, for its leaves, dark yellow-green and shining, 
make the tree cheerful-looking. The slender downy twigs 
are bright red, and there is a warm reddish tone in the 
brown bark. The winter buds are ruddy; the flowers 
purple; and the glossy cones, one to two inches long, change 
from purple to pale reddish brown before they mature and 
drop to pieces. Even in crowded forests this spruce keeps 
its lower limbs and looks hale and fresh by the prompt 
casting of its early ripening cones. 

The pale red wood is peculiarly adapted for sounding- 
boards of musical instruments. It has been used locally 
in buildings, but of late the wood-pulp mills get most of 
this timber. 



250 TREES 

The Engelmann Spruce 

P. Engelmanni, Engelm. 

The Engelmann spruce is the white spruce of the Rocky 
Mountains and the Cascade Range of Washington and 
Oregon, which forms great forests on high mountain slopes 
from Montana and Idaho to New Mexico and Arizona. 
Always in damp places, this thin-barked beautiful tree is 
safest, from fire. The leaves are blue-green, soft and 
flexible but with sharp callous tips. The cones are about 
two inches long, their thin scales narrowing to the blunt 
tips. Each year a crop of seeds is cast and the cones fall. 
Running fires destroy the seed crop with the standing 
trees, making renewal of the species impossible in the 
burnt-over tracts. For this reason, this beautiful spruce 
tree is of tenest found on the higher altitudes, or where wet 
ground and banks of snow defend it from its arch enemy. 
The tree is satisfactory in cultivation, but never equal to 
the wild-forest specimens. The wood is used locally for 
building purposes, for fuel and charcoal. 

The Blue Spruce 

P. Parryana, Sarg. 

The blue spruce well known in Eastern lawns as the 
"Colorado blue spruce," is a crisp-looking, handsome tree, 
broadly pyramidal, with rigid branches and stout horny- 
pointed leaves, blue-green to silvery white, exceeding an 
inch in length. At home on the mountains of Colorado, 
Utah and Wyoming, it reaches a hundred to a hundred and 
fifty feet in height and a trunk diameter of three feet, and 



THE FIRS 251 

becomes thin and ragged at maturity. The same fate 
overtakes the trim little lawn trees, so perfect in color and 
symmetry for a few years. 

Tideland Spruce 

P. Sitchensis, Carr. 

The tideland spruce is the most important lumber tree in 
Alaska. It inhabits the coast region from Cape Mendo- 
cino, in California, northward; and is abundant on wet, 
sandy and swampy soil. The conspicuous traits of this 
tree are its strongly buttressed trunk, one hundred to two 
hundred feet tall, often greatly swollen at the base; the 
graceful sweep of its wide low-spreading lower limbs; and 
the constant play of light and shadows in the tree-top, due 
to the lustrous sheen on the bright foliage. It is a mag- 
nificent tree, one of the largest and most beautiful of the 
Western conifers, indomitable in that it climbs from the 
sea-level to altitudes three thousand feet above, and fol- 
lows the coast farther north than any other conifer. 



THE FIRS 

In a forest of evergreens the spire form, needle leaves, 
and some other traits belong to several families. To dis- 
tinguish the firs from the spruces, which they closely re- 
semble in form and foliage, notice the position of the 
cones. All fir trees hold their ripe cones erect. No other 
family with large cones has this striking characteristic. 
All the rest of the conifers have pendent cones, except the 
small-fruited cypresses and arbor-vitaes. 



S52 TREES 

All fir trees belong to the genus abies, whose twenty-five 
species are distributed from the Far North to the highlands 
of tropical regions in both the Eastern and Western Hemis- 
pheres. All are tall pyramidal trees, with wide-spreading 
horizontal limbs bearing thick foliage masses, and 
with bark that contains vesicles full of resinous balsam. 
The branches grow in whorls and spread like fern fronds, 
covered for eight or nine years with the persistent leaves* 
Circular scars are left on the smooth branches when they 
fall. 

The leaves are the distinguishing character of the genus 
when cones are lacking. They are usually flat, two-ranked 
on the twig, without stems, and blunt, or even notched at 
the tip. For these typical leaves one must look on the 
lower sterile branches of the tree, and back of the growing 
shoots, where leaves are apt to be crowded and immature. 
The cones are borne near the tops of the trees, and on these 
branches the leaves are often crowded and not two- 
ranked as they are below. The flowers of fir trees are 
abundant and showy, the staminate clusters appearing on 
the under sides of the platforms of foliage; the pistillate 
held erect on platforms higher up on the tree's spire. Al- 
ways the flowers are borne on the shoots of the previous 
season. The cone fruits are cylindrical or ovoid, ripening 
in a single season and discharging their seeds at maturity. 
The stout tapering axis of the cone persists after seeds and 
scales have fallen. 

The bark of fir trees is thin, smooth, and pale, with 
abundant resin vesicles, until the trees are well grown. As 
age advances the bark thickens and becomes deeply fur- 
rowed. The wood is generally pale, coarse-grained, and 
brittle. 



THE FIRS 253 

The Balsam Fir 

Abies balsamea, Mill. 

The balsam fir is probably best known as the typical 
Christmas tree of the Northeastern states and the source 
of Canada balsam, used in laboratories and in medicine. 
Fresh leaves stuff the balsam pillows of summer visitors 
to the North Woods. In the lumber trade and in horti- 
culture this fir tree cuts a sorry figure, for its wood is 
weak, coarse, and not durable, and in cultivation it is short- 
lived, and early loses its lower limbs. 

Throughout New England, northward to Labrador, 
and southward along the mountains to southwestern Vir- 
ginia, this tree may be known at a glance by its two- 
ranked, pale-lined leaves, lustrous and dark green above, 
one half to one and one half inches long, sometimes 
notched on twigs near the top of the tree. Rich dark 
purple cones, two to four inches long, with thin plain- 
margined, broad scales, stand erect, glistening with drops 
of balsam, on branches near the top of the tree. The 
same balsam exudes from bruises in the smooth bark. 
By piercing the white blisters and systematically wound- 
ing branch and trunk, the limpid balsam is made to flow 
freely, and is collected as a commercial enterprise in some 
parts of Canada. "Oil of fir" also is obtained from the 
bark. 

The Balsam Fir j 

A. Fraseri, Poir. 

This balsam fir, much more luxuriant in foliage, and 
worthier of cultivation as an ornamental tree, is native to 



254 TREES 

the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, 
Tennessee and North Carolina. The purple cones are 
ornamented by pale yellow cut-toothed bracts that turn 
back over the edge of the plain scale. Limited in range, 
but forming forests between the limits of four and six 
thousand feet in altitude, this tree is confined to local 
uses as lumber and fuel. 

All the other firs of America are Western, and among 
these are some of the tree giants of the world. 



The Red Fir 

A. magnified, A. Murr. 

The magnificent red fir is called by John Muir "the 
noblest of its race." In its splendid shaft that reaches 
two hundred and fifty feet in height, and a trunk diameter 
of seven feet, there is a symmetry and perfection of 
finish throughout that is achieved by no other tree. One 
above another in graduated lengths the branches spread 
in level collars, the oldest drooping on the ground, the 
rest horizontal, their framework always five main branches 
that carry luxuriant flat plumes of silvery needles. Each 
leaf is almost equally four-sided, ribbed above and below, 
with pale lines on all sides, so wide as to make the new 
growth silvery throughout the season. Later these leaves 
become blue-green, and persist for about ten years. 
Only on the lower side of the branch are the leaves two- 
ranked. 

The bark of this fir tree is covered with dark brown 
scales, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges, broken 
by cross fissures when old. Out toward the tips of the 



THE FIRS 255 

branches the bark is silvery white. In mid- June the 
flowers appear, the staminate in profuse clusters against 
the silvery leaf-linings, bright red, on the under sides of 
the platforms. It is a blind or stupid person who can 
travel in fir woods and fail to notice this wonderful flower 
pageant, that may be viewed by merely looking upward. 
The pistillate flowers, greenish yellow, tipped with pink, 
are out of sight as a rule, among the needles in the tree-tops. 
They ripen into tall cylindrical cones, six to eight inches 
long and half as wide, that fall to pieces at maturity, 
discharging their broad thin scales with the purple irides- 
cent winged seeds. 

Pure forests of this splendid fir tree are found in southern 
Oregon among the Cascade Mountains, between five and 
seven thousand feet above the sea. It is the commonest 
species in the forest belt of the Sierra Nevada, between 
elevations of six thousand and nine thousand feet. From 
nprthern California, it follows the western slope of the 
Sierra Nevada, climbing to ten thousand feet in its 
southernmost range. A variety, Shastensis, Lemm., is 
the red fir with bright yellow fringed bracts on its stout 
cones. This ornament upon its fruits seems to be the 
chief distinguishing character of the form which occurs 
with the parent species on the mountains in Oregon and 
northern California, and recurs in the southern Sierra 
Nevada. 

The best defense of this superb red .fir is the comparative 
worthlessness of its soft, weak wood. Coarse lumber 
for cheap buildings, packing cases and fuel makes the 
only demands upon it. In European parks it is success- 
fully grown as an ornamental tree, and has proved hardy 
in eastern Massachusetts. 



256 TREES 

The Noble Fir 

A. nobilis, Lindl. 

The noble fir or red fir is another giant of the Northwest, 
On the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Wash- 
ington and Oregon it reaches occasionally two hundred 
and fifty feet in height, differing from magnified in being 
round-topped instead of pyramidal before maturity. Its 
red-brown wood, furrowed bark and the red staminate 
flowers justify its name. The twigs are red and velvety 
for four or five years. The leaves are deeply grooved 
above, rounded and obscurely ribbed on the lower surface, 
blue-green, often silvery through their first season, crowded 
and curved so that the tips point away from the end of the 
branch. 

The oblong cylindrical cones, four to five inches long, 
are velvety, their scales covered by bracts, shaped and 
notched like a scallop shell, with a forward-pointing spine, 
exceeding the bract in length. Forests of this tree at 
elevations of twenty-five hundred to five thousand feet 
are found in Washington and northern Oregon, from which 
limited quantities of the brownish-red wood enter the 
lumber trade under the name of "larch/' 

The White Fir 

A. grandis, Lindl. 

The white fir is a striking figure, from its silvery lined, 
dark green foliage, its slender pyramidal form that 
reaches three hundred feet in height, and the vivid green 
of its mature cones that are destitute of ornament and 



THE FIRS 257 

slenderly cylindrical. From Vancouver Island southward 
to Mendocino County in California, this tree is common 
from the sea level to an elevation of four thousand feet. 
Eastward it extends into Idaho, climbing to seven thous- 
and feet, but choosing always moist soil in the neighbor- 
hood of streams. Various uses, woodenwares, packing cases, 
and fuel consume its soft, coarse wood to a limited extent. 
The delicate grace of its sweeping down-curving branches 
makes it one of the most beautiful of our Western firs. It 
grows rapidly, and is a favorite in European parks. 

The White Fir 

A. concolor, Lindl. and Gord. 

This white fir is a giant of the Sierras, but a tree of 
medium height in the Rocky Mountains. Its leaves are 
often two to three inches long, very unusual for a fir 
tree, curving to an erect position, pale blue or silvery 
at first, becoming dull green at the end of two or three 
years. 

On the California Sierras, this silver fir tree lifts its 
narrow spire two hundred and fifty feet toward the sky 
and waves great frondlike masses of foliage on pale gray 
branches. As a much smaller tree, it is found in the arid 
regions of the Great Basin and of southern New Mexico 
and Arizona, territory which no other fir tree invades. 
In gardens of Europe and of our Eastern states this 
is a favorite fir tree, often known as the "blue fir" 
and the "silver fir" from its pale bark and foliage, 
whose blue cast is not always permanent. Eastern nur- 
series obtain their best trees from seeds gathered in the 
Rocky Mountains. 



258 TREES 



THE DOUGLAS SPRUCE 

The Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga mucronata, Sudw.), 
ranks with the giant arbor-vitaes, firs, and sequoias in the 
forests of the Pacific Coast. Thousands of square miles 
of pure forest of this species occur in Oregon, Washington, 
and British Columbia. Here the trees stand even, like 
wheat in a grain field, the tallest reach four hundred feet, 
the redwood its only rival. Nowhere but in the redwood 
forests is there such a heavy stand of timber on this 
continent. No forest tree except sequoias equals the 
Douglas spruce in massiveness of trunk and yield of 
straight-grained lumber. 

The genus pseudotsuga stands botanically in a position 
intermediate between firs and hemlocks. Our tree giant 
is as often called the Douglas fir as Douglas spruce. 
The lumberman sells the output of his mills under the 
trade name, "Oregon pine." This is perhaps the best 
known lumber in all the Western country. It has a great 
reputation abroad, where timbers of the largest size 
are used for masts, spars, piles for wharves and bridges, and 
for whatever uses heavy timbers are needed. The wood 
is stronger in proportion to its weight than that of any 
other large conifer in the country. It is tough, durable, 
and elastic. Its only faults are its extreme hardness and 
liability to warp when cut into boards. These faults are 
noted only by carpenters who use the wood for interior 
finish of houses. "Red pine" it is called in regions of the 
Great Basin, where the trees grow smaller than on the 
Coast, and are put to general lumber purposes. It is 
variable in quality, but always pale yellow, striped with 



THE HEMLOCKS 259 

red, and handsomely wavy when quarter-sawed; dis- 
tractingly so in the "slash grain," oftenest seen in the 
interior finish of the typical California bungalow. 

The living tree is a superb, broad-based pyramid, bear- 
ing a load of crowded drooping branches, where it has a 
chance to assume its normal habit. A delicate lace-like 
drooping spray of yellowish or bluish green leaves, flat, 
spreading at right angles from the twig, gives the Douglas 
spruce its hale, abundant vigor. The dark red staminate 
flowers glow in late winter against the yellow foliage mass 
of the new leaves; but even the flowers are not so showy as 
the drooping cones, two to four inches long, their plain 
scales adorned with bracts, notched and bearing a whip 
that extends half an inch beyond the scales. Blue-green, 
shading to purple, with red-lipped scales and bright green 
bracts, these cones are truly the handsomest ornaments 
worn by any tree. 

Finally, this paragon of conifers surprises Eastern 
nurserymen by outstripping other seedlings in vigor and 
quickness of growth. Rocky Mountain seed does best. 
The Oregon trees furnish seed to European nurseries and 
seedlings from Europe grow quickly into superb orna- 
mental trees. 



THE HEMLOCKS 

Unlike any other conifer, the hemlock mounts its ever- 
green leaves on short petioles, jointed to projecting, horny 
brackets on the twig. At any season this character de- 
termines the family name of a group of exceptionally 
graceful pyramidal conifers. The Eastern hemlocks have 
their leaves arranged in a flat spray, silvery white under- 



260 TREES 

neath, by pale lines on the underside of the flat blunt- 
pointed blade (See illustration, page 21^6). An abun- 
dance of pendent cones is borne annually. The wood of 
hemlocks is comparatively worthless but the bark is rich in 
tannin, and so the tree is important in the leather trade. 

The Hemlock 

Tsuga Canadensis, Carr. 

The hemlock lifts its dark green, feathery spray above the 
sturdy trunk into a splendid broad pyramid. In all rocky 
uplands from Nova Scotia to Alabama and west to Min- 
nesota, the drooping lower branches sweep the ground, 
and the tree is often half buried in snow. But in spring 
every twig is dancing and waving yellow plumes of new 
foliage, the picture of cheerfulness as the sunlight sifts 
through the tree-tops. In May the new blossoms sprinkle 
all the leafy twigs — the staminate, yellow; the pistillate, 
pale violet. Looking up from below, one sees a charming 
iridescent effect when the blossoms add their color to the 
shimmering silver which lines the various platforms of 
foliage. The little red-brown cones cling to the twigs all 
winter, slowly parting their scales to release the winged 
seeds. Squirrels climb the trees in the fall and cut off 
these cones to store away for winter use. 

"Peelers" go into the woods in May, when the new 
growth is well started and the bark will peel readily. They 
fell and strip hemlock trunks and remove the bark in 
sheets, which are piled to dry and be measured like cord- 
wood, and later shipped to the tanneries. The cross- 
grained coarse wood is left to rot and feed forest fires. 
Locally, it is useful for the timbers of houses and barns, be- 



THE HEMLOCKS 261 

cause it is rigid and never lets go its hold upon a nail or 
spike. 

The Western Hemlock 

T. hetewphylla, Sarg. 

The Western hemlock is a giant that dominates other 
trees in the Western mountain forests, famous for their 
giants of many different names. It is a noble pyramidal 
tree that reaches two hundred feet in height and a maxi- 
mum trunk diameter of ten feet. Its heavy horizontal 
branches droop and hold out feathery tips as light and 
graceful in the adult monarch as in the sapling of a few 
years' growth. The characteristic hemlock foliage, lus- 
trous green above and pale below, is two-ranked by the 
twisting of the slender petioles. 

From southeastern Alaska, eastward into Montana and 
Idaho, and southward to Cape Mendocino in California, 
this tree climbs from the lowlands to an altitude that ex- 
ceeds a mile. Wherever there are rich river valleys and 
the air is humid, this hemlock is superb, the delight of 
artists and lumbermen. At its highest range it becomes 
stunted, but always produces its oval, pointed cones in 
abundance, 

Its wood, the strongest and most durable in the hemlock 
family, is chiefly used in buildings, and the bark for tan- 
ning. 

The Mountain Hemlock 

T. Martensiana, Sarg. 

The mountain hemlock of the West is called by John 
Muir "the loveliest evergreen in America." Sargent en- 
dorses this judgment with emphasis. It grows at high 



262 TREES 

altitudes, fringing upland meadows, watered by glaciers, 
with groves of the most exquisite beauty. The sweeping, 
downward-drooping branches, clothed with abimdant pea- 
green foliage, silver-lined, resist wind storms and snow 
burdens by the wonderful pliancy of their fibres. In early 
autumn the trees are bent over so as to form arches. 
Young forests are thus buried out of sight for six months of 
the year. With the melting of the snow they right them- 
selves gradually, and among the new leaves appear the 
flowers, dark purple cones and staminate star-flowers, 
blue as forget-me-nots. Three-angled leaves, whorled 
on the twig, and cones two to three inches long, set this 
hemlock apart from its related species, but the leaf -stalk 
settles once for all the question of its family name. 



THE SEQUOIAS 

Nowhere else in the world are conifers found in such ex- 
tensive forests and in such superlative vigor and stu- 
pendous size as in the states that border the Pacific Ocean. 
California is particularly the paradise of the conifers. All 
of the species that make the forests of the Northwest the 
wonder of travelers and the pride of the states are found in 
equally prodigal size and extent in California. To these 
forests are added groves of sequoias — the Big Tree and the 
redwood, the former found nowhere outside of California, 
the latter reaching into Oregon. 

Once the sequoias had a wide distribution in the Old 
and the New World. With magnolias and many other lux- 
uriant trees found in warm climates, five species of sequoia 
extended over the North Temperate zone in both hemi- 




See page 268 
THE FLAT, FROND-LIKE SPRAY OF THK ORNAMENTAL 
ARBOR VTTjE 




See page 278 
FRUIT AND LEAVES OF THE AMERICAN LARCH 



THE SEQUOIAS 263 

spheres, reaching even to the Arctic Circle. The glacial 
period transformed the climate of the world and de- 
stroyed these luxuriant northern forests under a grinding 
continuous glacier. The rocks of the tertiary and 
cretaceous periods preserved in fossils the story of these 
pre-glacial forests. Two of the species of sequoia escaped 
destruction in tracts the ice sheet did not overwhelm. For 
ten thousand years, perhaps, the sequoia has held its own 
in the California groves. Indeed, both species are able to 
extend their present range if nature is unhindered. The 
three enemies that threaten sequoia groves are the axe of 
the lumberman, the forest fire kindled by the waste about 
sawmills, and the grazing flocks that destroy seedling trees. 

The Big Tree 

Sequoia Wellingtonia, Seem. 

The Big Tree is the most gigantic tree on the face of the 
earth, the mightiest living creature in existence. Among 
the giant sugar pines and red firs it lifts a wonderfully reg- 
ular, rounded dome so far above the aspiring arrow-tips of 
its neighbors as to make the best of them look like mere 
saplings. The massive trunk, clothed with red-brown or 
purplish bark, is fluted by furrows often more than a foot 
in depth. The trunk is usually bare of limbs for a hundred 
or two hundred feet, clearing the forest cover completely 
before throwing out its angular stout arms. These 
branch at last into rounded masses of leafy twigs, whose 
density and brilliant color express the beauty and vigor of 
eternal youth in a tree which counts its age by thousands 
of years already. 

To see this Big Tree in blossom one must visit the high 



264 TREES 

Sierras while the snow is eight to ten feet deep upon the 
buttressed base of the huge trunk. It is worth a journey, 
and that with some hardship in it, to see these trees with all 
their leafy spray, gold-lined with the multitude of little 
staminate flowers that sift pollen gold-dust over every- 
thing, and fill the air with it. The pistillate flowers, 
minute, pale green, crowd along the ends of the leafy 
sprays, their cone scales spread to receive the vitalizing 
dust brought by the wind. 

When spring arrives and starts the flower procession 
among the lower tree-tops, the spray of the Big Tree is 
covered with green cones that mature at the end of the 
second season. They are woody, two to three inches long, 
and spread their scales wide at a given signal, showering 
the surrounding woods with the abundant harvest of their 
minute winged seeds. Each scale bears six to eight of 
them, each with a circular wing that fits it for a long 
journey. The cones hang empty on the trees for years. 

The leaves of the Big Tree are of the close, twig-hugging, 
scaly type, never exceeding a half inch in length on the 
most exuberant-growing shoots. For the most part they 
are from one fourth to one eighth of an inch in length, 
sharp pointed, ridged, curved to clasp the stem, and shin- 
gled over the leaves above. 

John Muir believes there is no absolute limit to the ex- 
istence of any tree. Accident alone, he thinks, not the 
wearing out of vital organs, accounts for their death. The 
fungi that kill the silver fir inevitably before it is three 
hundred years old touch no limb of the Big Tree with decay. 
A sequoia must be blown down, undermined, burned down, 
or shattered by lightning. Old age and disease pass these 
trees by. Their heads, rising far above the spires of fir and 



THE SEQUOIAS 265 

spruce, seem not to court the lightning flash as the lower, 
pointed trunks do; and yet no aged sequoia can be found 
whose head has not suffered losses by Jove's thunder- 
bolts. Cheerfully the tree lets go a fraction of its mighty 
top, and sets about the repair of the damage, with greatly 
accelerated energy, as if here was an opportunity to expend 
the tree's pent-up vitality. It is strange to see horizontal 
branches of great age and size strike upward to form a part 
of a new, symmetrical dome to replace the head struck off 
or mangled by lightning. With all the signs of damage 
lightning has done to these tree giants of the Sierras, but 
one instance of outright killing of a tree is on record. 

The wood of the Big Tree is red and soft, coarse, light, 
and weak — unfit for must lumber uses. It ought, by all 
ordinary standards, to be counted scarcely worth the cut- 
ting; but the vast quantity yielded by a single tree pays the 
lumberman huge profits, though he wastes thousands of 
feet by blasting the mighty shaft into chunks manageable 
in the sawmill. Shingles, shakes, and fencing consume 
more of the lumber than general construction — ignoble 
uses for this noblest of all trees. 

The best groves of Big Trees now under government pro- 
tection are in the grand Sequoia National Park. Near the 
Yosemite is the famous Mariposa Grove that contains the 
"grizzly giant" and other specimen trees of great age and 
size. More than half of the Big Trees are in the hands of 
speculators and lumber companies. Exploitation of 
nature's best treasure is as old as the human race. The 
idea of conservation is still in its infancy. 

The ruin by the lumbering interests of a sequoia grove 
means the drying up of streams and the defeat of irrigation 
projects in the valleys below. Big Trees inhabit only areas 



2Q6 TREES 

on the western slopes of the Sierras. Wherever they grow 
their roots have made of the deep soil a sponge that holds 
the drainage of melting snowbanks and doles it out through 
streams that flow thence to famishing, hot, wind-swept 
plains and valleys. When the trees are gone, turbulent, 
short-lived spring floods exhaust the water supply and do 
untold damage in the lowlands. 

Big Trees have not succeeded in cultivation in our 
Eastern states, but for many years have been favorites in 
European gardens and parks. In the native groves the 
seedlings do not show the virility of the redwoods, though 
to the south the range of the species is being gradually 
extended. No tree is more prodigal in seed production 
and more indifferent, when mature, to the ills that beset 
ordinary forest trees; yet government protection must be 
strengthened, private claims must be bought, and scien- 
tific forestry maintained in order to prevent the extinction 
of the species, with the destruction of trees that are, as 
they stand to-day, the greatest living monuments in the 
world of plants. 

The Redwood 

S. sempervirens, Endl. 

The redwood comes down to the sea on the western 
slopes of the Coast Range, from southern Oregon to 
Monterey County in California, tempting the lumberman 
by the wonderful wealth and accessibility of these groves 
of giant trees. The wood is soft, satiny, red, like the 
thick, fibrous, furrowed bark that clothes the tall, fluted 
trunks. 

Redwoods are taller than Big Trees, have slenderer 
trunks and branches and a more light and graceful leaf- 



THE SEQUOIAS 267 

spray. The head is pyramidal in young trees, later be- 
coming irregular and narrow, and exceedingly small in 
forests by the crowding of the trees and the death of lower 
branches. The leaves on the terminal shoots spread into 
a flat spray, two-ranked, like those of a balsam fir. Each 
blade is flat, tapering to both ends, and from one fourth 
to one half an inch in length. Awl-shaped and much 
shorter leaves are scattered on year-old twigs, back of the 
new shoots, resembling the foliage of the Big Tree. 

The cones are small and almost globular, maturing in 
a single season, scarcely an inch long, with three to five 
winged seeds under each scale. Seedling redwoods come 
quickly from this yearly sowing, and thrive under the 
forest cover, unless fire or the trampling feet of grazing 
flocks destroy them. After the lumberman, the virile 
redwood sends up shoots around the bleeding stumps, thus 
reinforcing the seedling tree and promising the renewal of 
the forest groves in the centuries to come. 

Redwood lumber is the most important building ma- 
terial on the Pacific Coast. The hardest and choicest 
wood comes in limited quantities from the stumps which 
furnish curly and birdseye wood, used by the makers 
of bric-a-brac and high-priced cabinet work. Shingles, 
siding, and interior finish of houses consume quantities 
of the yearly output of the mills. Demand for fence 
posts, railway ties and cooperage increases. Quantities 
of lumber are shipped east to take the place of white pine 
no longer obtainable. 

In cultivation the redwood is a graceful, quick-growing, 
beautiful evergreen, successful in the Southeastern states, 
and often met in European parks and gardens. Weeping 
forms are very popular abroad. 



268 



TREES 



Government and state protection has made sure the 
safeguarding for coming generations of some groves of 
redwoods, containing trees whose size and age rival those 
of the most ancient Big Trees. But the fact that the 
redwood, restricted on the map to such a limited territory, 
is the most important timber tree on the Coast, is a blot 
upon our vaunted Democracy, which has allowed the 
cunning of a few small minds to defeat the best interests 
of the whole people and rob them of forest treasure which 
might yield its benefits continuously, if properly managed. 
Government purchase of all sequoia-bearing land, followed 
by rational methods of harvesting the mature lumber and 
conserving the young growth, is the ideal solution of the 
problem. Such a plan would assure the saving of the 
monumental giants. 



THE ARBOR-VITAES 

Minute, scale-like leaves, four-ranked, closely over- 
lapping, so as to conceal the wiry twig, mark the genus 
thuya, which is represented in America by two species of 
slender, pyramidal evergreen trees, whose intricately 
branched limbs terminate in a flat, open spray {see illus- 
tration, page 262), "Tree of Life" is the English transla- 
tion, but the Latin name everywhere is heard. 



Eastern Arbor-vitae 

Thuya occidentalism Linn. 

The Eastern arbor-vitae, called also the white cedar, 
is found in impenetrable pure forest growth, from Nova 



THE ARBOR-VITAES 269 

Scotia and New Brunswick northwestward to the mouth 
of the Saskatchewan River, always in swampy regions, 
or along the rocky banks of streams. In the East it 
follows the mountains to Tennessee, and from Lake 
Winnipeg it extends south to middle Minnesota and 
northern Illinois. In cultivation it is oftenest seen as 
an individual lawn and park tree, or in hedges on boundary 
lines. It submits comfortably to severe pruning, is easily 
transplanted, and comes readily from seed. Plantations 
grow rapidly into fence posts and telegraph poles. The 
wood is durable in wet ground, but very soft, coarse, and 
brittle. 

The Red Cedar 

T. plicata, D. Don. 

The red cedar or canoe cedar is the giant arbor-vitae 
of the coast region from British Columbia to northern 
California and east over the mountain ranges into Idaho 
and northern Montana. Its buttressed trunk is a fluted 
column one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high 
in western Washington and Oregon, along the banks of 
mountain streams and in the rich bottom land farther 
seaward. The leaves in a flat spray at once distinguish 
this tree from any other conifer, for they are pointed, scale- 
like, closely overlapping each other in alternate pairs. 

The clustered cones, with their six or eight seed- 
bearing scales, seem absurdly small fruits on so huge a tree. 
None exceeds one half an inch in height, but their number 
makes up for size deficiency and the seed crop is tre- 
mendous. 

The Alaskan Indian chooses the tall bole of a red cedar 
for his totem pole, and from the massive butt hollows 



270 



TREES 



out the war canoe and "dug-out" which solve his prob- 
lems of transportation in summer. Durability is the 
chief merit of this soft, brittle wood, which is easily worked 
with the Indian's crude tools. The bark of the tree fur- 
nishes the walls of the Indian huts and its inner fibre 
is the raw material of his cordage — the harness for his 
dog team, his nets and lines for fishing; and it is the basis 
of the squaw's basket-weaving industry. 

This is the best arbor-vitae for ornamental planting. 
Its success in Europe is very striking, and from European 
nurseries it has been successfully re-introduced into the 
United States, where it is hardy and vigorous. But it 
fails when taken directly into the North Atlantic states. 
It must come in via Europe, as nearly all West Coast 
trees have to do in order to succeed. 

THE INCENSE CEDAR 



One tree, so magnificent in proportions that it ranks 
among the giants in our Western forests, stands as the 
sole American representative of its genus. Its nearest 
relatives are the arbor- vitaes, sequoias, and the bald cypress 
of the South. 

The incense cedar (Librocedrus Decurrens, Torr.) has 
its name from its resinous, aromatic sap. The tree, when 
it grows apart from others, forms a perfect tapering pyra- 
mid, with fiat, plume-like sprays that sweep downward 
and outward with wonderful lightness and grace. The 
leaves are scale-like, closely appressed to the wiry twigs, 
in four ranks, bright green, tinged with gold in late winter, 
by the abundance of the yellow staminate flowers. The 
cones are small, narrowly pointed, made of few paired 



THE CYPRESSES 271 

scales, each bearing two seeds. The bark is cinnamon-red 
in color. The trees occur scattered among other species in 
open forests from three thousand to six thousand feet 
above the sea, reaching a height of two hundred feet and a 
trunk diameter of twelve feet on the Sierra Nevada glacial 
moraines. 

The lumber resembles that of arbor-vitae, and is used for 
the same purposes. In cultivation the tree is hardy and 
thrives in parks in the neighborhood of New York. In 
Europe it has long been a favorite. 

THE CYPRESSES 

Three genera of pyramidal conifers, with light, graceful 
leaf-spray, and small woody cones, held erect, compose the 
group known as cypresses. All have found places in 
horticulture, for not one of them but has value for orna- 
mental planting. Some species have considerable lumber 
value. 

The Monterey Cypress 

Cupressus macrocarpa, Cord. 

The Monterey cypress is now restricted to certain ocean- 
facing bluffs about Monterey Bay in California. These 
trees are derelicts of their species. Wind-beaten into 
grotesqueness of form, unmatched in any other tree 
near the sea-level, their matted and gnarled branches 
make a flat and very irregular top above a short, thick, 
often bent and leaning trunk. Clusters of globular cones 
stud the twigs behind the leafy spray composed of thread- 
like wiry twigs, entirely covered with scaly, four-ranked 
leaves. 



272 



TREES 



In cultivation this cypress grows into a luxuriant, pyr- 
amidal tree, often broadening and losing its symmetry, 
but redeeming it by the grace of its plume-like, outstretched 
branches. One by one the native cypresses on the crum- 
bling bluffs will go down into Monterey Bay, for the 
undermining process is eating out their foundations. 
Wind and wave are slowly but surely sealing their doom. 
But the species is saved to a much wider territory. 

The European Cypress 

C. sempervirens, Linn. 

A tall, narrow pyramid of sombre green, the European 
cypress is found in cemeteries in south Europe and every- 
where, planted for ornament. This is the classic cypress, 
a conventional feature of Italian gardens, the evergreen 
most frequently mentioned in classical literature. Slow- 
growing and noted for its longevity, it was the symbol of 
immortality. It is hardy in the South- Atlantic and 
Pacific-Coast states, and is a favorite evergreen for hedges 
in the Southwest. 

Three other members of the genus occur on mountain 
foothills — one in Arizona, two in California — all easily 
recognized by their scale-like leaves and button-like 
woody cones, which require two years to mature. 

The White Cedar 

Chamaecyparis Thyoides 9 Britt. 

The genus chamaecyparis includes three American 
species, of tall, narrow pyramidal habit and flat leaf -spray 
like that of the arbor- vitae. Annual erect globular cones 
of few, woody scales, produce one to five seeds under each. 



""\ 



THE CYPRESSES 278 

This white cedar is the swamp-loving variety of the 
Atlantic seaboard — its range stretches from Maine to Mis- 
sissippi. The durability of its white wood gives it consider- 
able importance as a lumber tree. It is particularly de- 
pendable when placed in contact with water and exposed to 
weather. Cedar shingles, fence posts, railroad ties, buckets* 
and other cooperage consume quantities each year. The 
trees are important ornamental evergreens, planted for 
their graceful spray and their dull blue-green leaves. 
Their maximum height is eighty feet. 

The Lawson Cypress 
C. Lawsoniana, A. Murr. 

The Lawson cypress lifts its splendid spire to a height of 
two hundred feet, on the coast mountains of Oregon and 
California, forming a nearly continuous forest belt twenty 
miles long, between Point Gregory and the mouth of the 
Coquille River. Spire-like, with short, horizontal branches, 
this species bears a leaf-spray of feathery lightness, 
bright green, from the multitude of minute paired leaf- 
scales, and adorned with the clustered pea-sized cones, 
which are blue-green and very pale until they ripen. 

The wood of this giant cypress is used in house-finishing 
and in boat-building; for flooring, fencing, and for railroad 
ties. 

The Bald Cypress 

[ Taxodium distichum, Rich, 

The bald cypress is the one member of the cypress group 
that sheds its foliage each autumn, following the example 
of the tamarack. In the Far South, river swamps are often 



274 



TREES 



covered with a growth of these cypresses whose trunks are 
strangely swollen at the base, and often hollow. The flar- 
ing buttresses are prolonged into the main roots, which 
form humps that rise out of the water at some distance 
from the tree. These "cypress knees" are not yet ex- 
plained, though authorities suspect that they have some- 
thing to do with the aeration of the root system. 

Inundated nine or ten months of the year, these cy- 
press swamps are often dry the remaining time, and it is a 
surprise to Southerners to find these trees comfortable and 
beautiful in Northern parks. Cleveland and New York 
parks have splendid examples. 

The leaves of the bald cypress are of two types. They 
are scale-like only on stems that bear the globular cones. 
On other shoots they form a flat spray, each leaf one half to 
three fourths of an inch long, pea-green in the Southern 
swamps, bright yellow-green on both sides in dry ground, 
turning orange-brown before they fall. The twigs that 
bear these two-ranked leaves are also deciduous, a unique 
distinction of this genus. 

Cypress wood is soft, light brown, durable, and easily 
worked. Quantities of it are shipped north and used in the 
manufacture of doors and interior finishing of houses, for 
fencing, railroad ties, cooperage, and shingles. 



THE JUNIPERS 



The sign by which the junipers are most easily distin- 
guished from other evergreens, is the juicy berries instead of 
cones. In some species these are red, but they are mostly 
blue or blue-black. Before they mature it is easy to see 



THE JUNIPERS 275 

the stages by which the cone-scales thicken and coalesce, 
instead of hardening and remaining separate, as in the 
typical fruit of conifers. 

Juniper leaves are of two types: scale-like in opposite 
pairs, pressed close to the twig, as in the cypresses; and 
stiff, spiny, usually channelled leaves, which stand out free 
from the twig in whorls of threes. 

The wood is red, fragrant, durable, and light. 

The Dwarf Juniper 

Juniperus communis, Linn. 

The dwarf juniper departs from the pyramidal pattern 
and forms a loose, open head above a short, stout trunk. 
The slender branchlets are clothed with boat-shaped 
leaves which spread nearly at right angles from the twigs in 
whorls of three. Each one is pointed and hollowed, dark 
green outside, snowy white inside, which is really the upper 
side of the leaf. It requires three years to mature the 
bright blue berries, and they hang on the tree two or three 
years longer. Each fruit contains two or three seeds, and 
these require three years to germinate. 

It is plain to see that time is no object to this slow-grow- 
ing dwarf juniper, found in both the Eastern and Western 
Hemispheres, covering vast stretches of waste land. From 
Greenland to Alaska it is found and south along the high- 
lands into Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and California. Its 
hardiness gives it importance as a cover for waste land on 
seashores and for hedges and windbreaks in any exposed 
situation. It is a tree reaching thirty feet in height on the 
limestone hills of southern Illinois. In other situations it 
is usually a sprawling shrubby thing, the cringing parent 



£76 



TREES 



of a race of dwarf junipers, known in many and various 
horticultural forms. 

The Western Juniper 
J. occidentalis, Hook. 

The giant of its race is the Western juniper, one of the 
patriarchial trees of America, ranking in age with the 
sequoias. Never a tall tree, it yet attains a trunk diameter 
of ten feet, and an age that surely exceeds two thousand 
years. At elevations of seven to ten thousand feet this 
valiant red cedar is found clinging to the granite domes 
and bare glacial pavements where soil and moisture seem 
absolutely non-existent. Sunshine and thin air are 
abundant, however, and elbow room. Upon these com- 
modities the tree subsists, crouching, stubbornly clinging, 
while a single root offers foothold, its gnarled branches 
picturesque and beautiful in their tufts of gray-green 
leaves. Avalanches have beheaded the oldest of these 
giants, but their denuded trunks throw out wisps of 
new foliage with each returning spring. When they suc- 
cumb, their trunks last almost as long as the granite 
boulders among which they are cast by the wind or the 
ice-burden that tore them loose. 

The stringy bark is woven into cloth and matting by 
the Indians, and the fine-grained, hard, red wood finds no 
better use than for the mountaineer's fencing and fuel. 

The Eastern Red Cedar 

J". Virginiana, Linn. 

The Eastern red cedar is a handsome, narrow pyramid 
in its youth, often becoming broad and irregular, or 



THE LARCHES 



27r 



round-topped above a buttressed, twisted trunk, as it 
grows old. The scale-like leaves are four-ranked, blue- 
green when young, spreading, and sometimes three 
fourths of an inch long, on vigorous new shoots. The 
dark blue berries are covered with a pale bloom and have 
a resinous, sweet flesh. This juniper is familiar in aban- 
doned farms and ragged fence-rows, becoming rusty 
brown in foliage to match the stringy red bark in winter 
time. The durable red wood is used for posts and railroad 
ties, for cedar chests and pencils. The tree is profitably 
planted by railroad companies, as cedar ties are unsur- 
passed. In cultivation the tree forms an interesting, 
symmetrical specimen, adapted to formal gardens. (See 
illustration, page 230.) 

The Red Juniper 

J. Barbadensis, Linn. 

The red juniper, much more luxuriant than its close 
relative of the North, is the handsomest juniper in culti- 
vation. Its pyramid is robbed of a rigid formal expression 
by the drooping of its fern-like leaf -spray. The berries are 
silvery white and abundant. The wood is used princi- 
pally for pencils. This species grows in the Gulf states. 



THE LARCHES, OR TAMARACKS 

The notable characteristic of the small genus, larix, is 
that the narrow leaves are shed in the autumn. Here is 
a tall pyramidal conifer which is not evergreen. It 
bears an annual crop of small woody cones, held erect 



278 



TREES 



on the branches, and the leaves are borne in crowded 
clusters on short lateral spurs, except upon the terminal 
shoots, where the leaves are scattered remotely but follow 
the spiral plan. Larch wood is hard, heavy, resinous, and 
almost indestructible. The tall shafts are ideal for tele- 
graph poles and posts. 



The Tamarack 

Larix Americana, Michx. 

The tamarack or American larch (see illustration, page 
£63) goes farther north than any other tree, except dwarf 
willows and birches. Above these stunted, broad-leaved 
trees pure forests of tamarack rise, covering Northern 
swamps from Newfoundland and Labrador to Hudson 
Bay and west across the Rocky Mountains, the trees 
dwindling in size as they approach the arctic tundras, the 
limit of tree growth. The wood of these bravest of all 
conifers is a God-send over vast territories where other 
supply of timber is wanting. The tough roots of the 
larch tree supply threads with which the Indian sews his 
birch canoe. 

In cultivation the American species is too sparse of 
limb and foliage to compete with the more luxuriant 
European larch, yet it is often planted. Its fresh spring 
foliage is lightened by the pale yellow of the globular 
staminate flowers and warmed by the rosy tips of the 
cone flowers. In early autumn the plain, thin-scaled 
cones, erect and bright chestnut-brown, shed their small 
seeds while the yellow leaves are dropping, and the bare 
limbs carry the empty cones until the following year. 



THE LARCHES 



279 



The Western Larch 

L. occidentalism Nutt. 

The Western larch is the finest tree in its genus, reaching 
six feet in trunk diameter and two hundred feet in height, 
in the Cascade forests from British Columbia to southern 
Oregon and across the ranges to western Montana. This 
tree has the unusual distinction of exceeding all conifers 
in the value of its wood, which is heavy, hard, strong, 
dense, durable, of a fine red that takes a brilliant polish. 
It is used for furniture and for the interior finish of houses. 
Quantities of it supply the demand for posts and railroad 
ties, in which use it lasts indefinitely, compared with other 
timber. 



PART IX 
THE PALMS 

Palms are tropical plants related to lilies on one hand 
and grasses on the other. One hundred genera and about 
one thousand species compose a family in which tree forms 
rarely occur. A few genera grow wild in the warmest 
sections of this country, and exotics are familiar in culti- 
vation, wherever they are hardy. The leaves are parallel- 
veined, fan-shaped, or feather-like, on long stalks that 
sheath the trunk, splitting with its growth. The flowers 
are lily -like, on the plan of three, and the fruits are clus- 
tered berries, or drupes. 

Sago, tapioca, cocoanuts, and dates are foods de- 
rived from members of this wonderful family. The 
fibres of the leaves supply thread for weaving cloth and 
cordage to the natives of the tropics, where houses are 
built and furnished throughout from the native palms. 

The royal palm, crowned with a rosette of feather-like 
leaves, each ten to twelve feet long, above the smooth, 
tall stems, is a favorite avenue tree in tropical cities. 
In Florida it grows wild in the extreme southwest, but is 
planted on the streets of Miami and Palm Beach. Its 
maximum height is one hundred feet. 

In California the favorite avenue palm of this feather- 
leaved type is the Canary Island palm, whose stout trunk, 
covered with interlacing leaf-bases, wears a crown of 

280 



THE PALMS 



281 



plumes that reach fifteen feet in length and touch the 
ground with their drooping tips. Huge clusters of bright 
yellow, dry, olive-shaped berries ripen in midsummer. 

The date palm of commerce, once confined to the tropical 
deserts of Asia Minor and North Africa, has been suc- 
cessfully established by the Government in hot, dry locali- 
ties of the Southwest. Fruit equal to any grown in 
plantations of the Old World is marketed now from the 
Imperial and Coachella valleys in California, and from 
orchards near Phoenix, Arizona. Dry air and a summer 
temperature far above the hundred degree mark is neces- 
sary to insure the proper sugar content and flavor in 
these fruits, which are borne in huge clusters and ripen 
slowly, one by one. 

Fan-shaped leaves plaited on the ends of long stalks 
that are usually spiny-edged are borne by the stocky 
Florida palmettos and the tall desert palm of California, 
planted widely in cities of the Southwest and in Europe. 
Several genera of this fan-leaved type are represented in 
palm gardens, and in the general horticulture of warm 
regions of this country. 



THE END 



GENERAL INDEX 











PAGE 










PAGE 


Abies balsamea . . . . . 253 


American larch 278 


Abies concolor 








. . 257 


American linden . 








70 


Abies Fraseri . 








. . 253 


Annual rings . 








12 


Abies grandis . 








. . 256 


Anona cherimolia 








171 


Abies magnified 








. . 254 


Anona glabra . 








170 


Abies nobilis . 








. . 256 


Apples, The . 






147-149 


Acacia dealbata 








. . 187 


Arbor-vitaes, The 






268-270 


Acacia Melanoxylon 






. . 186 


Arboreta 






xiv 


Acacia, Palo verde 






. 190 


Arbutus Menziesii 








. 121 


Acacias, The . 






. 184-187 


Arnold arboretum 








xiv 


Acer circinatum . 






. . 197 


Ash, Black . . 








. 204 


Acer glabrum . 






. 199 


Ash, Blue . 








. 206 


Acer macrophyllum 






. 197 


Ash, European . 








. 208 


Acer nigrum . 






. 195 


Ash, Green 








. 206 


Acer Negundo 






. 199 


Ash, Oregon 








. 207 


Acer Pennsylvanicum 




. 198 


Ash, Red . 








. 205 


Acer pseudo-platanus 




. 200 


Ash, White . . 








202 


Acer rubrum 




. 195 


Ashes, Mountain 






! 116-118 


Acer saccharinum 




. 196 


Ashes, The 






201-209 


Acer saccharum . 




. 194 


Asimina triloba . 






. . 168 


Acer spicatum 




. 198 


Aspen .... 








. 78 


Aesculus Calif ornica . 




. 68 


Assam rubber tree 








. 166 


Aesculus glabra 




. 67 


Autumn leaves . 








19 


Aesculus Hippocastanum 




65 


Avocado . 








129 


Aesculus octandra 




. 67 












"Ague tree" .... 




. 131 


Bald cypress . 








273 


Alder, Black . . 






. 91 


Balm of Gilead . 








79 


Alder, Oregon 


. 




. 93 


Balsam fir 








253 


Alder, Red 


, 




. 93 


Balsam poplar 








79 


Alder, Seaside 






. 92 


"Banana tree, Wild" 








169 


Alders, The . 






.91-93 


Banyan tree 








166 


Alligator pear 






. 129 


Bark .... 








xv, 23 


Almond 


. 




. 152 


Basket oak 








55 


Alnus glutinosa 


. , 




. 91 


Basswood, Downy 








72 


Alnus maritima 


. 




. 92 


Basswood, White 








71 


Alnus Oregona 






. 93 


Bass woods, The . 








68-74 


Amelanchier alnifolia 




. 160 


Bay, Red . . . 








U9 


Amelanchier Canadensis 




. 159 


Bay, Rose 








119 


American beech . 




42 


Bay, Swamp . 








105 


American elm 




. 210 


Bee tree 








71 


American holly . 




. 115 


Beech) American 








W 


American hornbeu 


in 






. 85 


"Beech, Blue" . 








85 



283 



234 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

"Beech, Water" 85 

"Beetle- wood" 86 

Betula lenta 90 

Betula lutea 89 

Betula nigra . 90 

Betula papyrifera .... 88 

Betula populifolia .... 89 

"Big-cone" pine 240 

Big shellbark 38 

Big Tree 263 

Birch, Canoe 88 

Birch, Cherry 90 

Birch, Paper 88 

Birch, Red 90 

Birch, River 90 

Birch, White 89 

Birch, Yellow 89 

Birches, The 87-91 

Bird cherry 153 

"Bird's-eye" maplewood . . 15 

Black acacia 186 

Black alder 91 

Black ash 204 

Black cherry, Wild .... 153 

Black cottonwood .... 80 

Black dwarf sumach . . . 140 

Black gum 96 

Black haw 115-158 

Black locust 178 

Black maple 195 

Black mulberry 165 

Black oak 58 

Black oak group 58-65 

Black poplar 77 

Black spruce 248 

Black walnut 31 

Blackwood-tree 186 

Blue ash 206 

"Blue beech" 85 

Blue fir 257 

Blue spruce 250 

Box elder . ..... 199 

Buckeye, California .... 68 

Buckeye, Ohio 67 

Buckeye, Sweet .... 67 

Buds 3, 23 

Bur oak 51 

Burning bush 136 

Butternut 80 

Buttonwoods, The . . . .93-95 





PAGE 


California walnut 


. 20 


California white oak 


. 57 


Cambium 


. 9,21 


Campbell's magnolia 


. 103 


Camperdown elm 


. 216 


Canada plum 


. 151 


Canary island palm . 


. 280 


Canoe birch .... 


. 88 


Canoe cedar 


. 269 


Carica papaya 


. 169 


Carolina poplar . 


. 78 


Carpinus Carolinianum . 


. 85 


Castanea dentata . 


. 44 


Castanea pumila 


.44-46 


Cedar, Canoe 


. 269 


Cedar, Eastern red . 


. 276 


Cedar, Incense 


. 270 


Cedar, Red .... 


. 269 


Cedar, White . . . 


. 272 


Celtis Australia 


. 162 


Celtis occidentalis 


. 161 


Cercidium Torreyanum 


. 190 


Cercis Canadensis 


. 182 


Chamaecyparis Lawsoniana 


. 273 


Chamaecyparis Thyoides 


. 272 


Chemistry of trees . 


. 5-8 


Cherimoya .... 


. 171 


Cherries, The 


152-155 


Cherry birch .... 


. 90 


Chestnut oak 


. 53 


Chestnuts, The . . . 


.44-47 


Chinquapin .... 


.44-46 


Ckionanthus Virginica 


. . 126 


Chlorophyll, Breaking dow 


a of 


the 


. 18 


Choke cherry 


. 154 


Cladrastis lutea 


. 183 


Clammy locust 


. 179 


Cockspur thorn . 


. 156 


Coffee tree, Kentucky . 


. 181 


Colorado blue spruce 


. 250 


Common lime 


72 


Cone-bearing evergreens 


217-279 


Conifers 


217-279 


Coral-bean .... 


. 192 


"Cork elm" . . . 


. 215 


Cornel 


. 113 


Cornus florida 


. Ill 


Cornus mas .... 


. 113 


Cornus Nuttallii . 


. 113 


Cotinus 


. 142 



GENERAL INDEX 



285 



Cotton gum 
Cottonwood 
Cottonwood, 
Cottonwood, 



Black . . 

Lance-leaved 
Cottonwood, Mexican . 
Cottonwood, Narrow-leaved 
Cottonwood, Swamp 
Crab, Prairie . 
Crab, Wild . : 
Crataegus coccinea 
Crataegus Crus-galli 
Crataegus Douglasii 
Crataegus mollis . 
Crataegus oxyacantha 
Crataegus pruinosa 
Cuban pine . . 

Cucumber tree 107 

Cucumber tree, Large-leaved . 106 
Cupressus macrocarpa . . . 271 
Cwpressus sempervirens . . . 272 
"Curly maplewood" ... 15 
Custard-apple .... 168,170 
Cypresses, The .... 271-274 



Date palm 281 

Digger pine ...... 239 

Diospyrus Virginiana . . . 172 

Dogwood, European . . . 113 

Dogwood, Flowering . . . Ill 

Dogwood, Jamaica . . . . 190 

Dogwood, Western . . . . 113 

Dogwoods, The . . . .111-114 

Douglas spruce 258 

Downy basswood .... 72 

Dwarf juniper 275 

Dwarf maple 199 

Dwarf sumach 140 



Eastern arbor- vitae . 

Eastern mountain ash . 

Eastern red cedar 

Eastern service berry 

Ebony, Texas 

Elder, Box .... 

Elder-leaved mountain ash 

Elm, American 

Elm, Camperdown . 

"Elm, Cork" .... 

Elm, English .... 

Elm, Hickory 

Elm, Moose .... 



PAGE 
97 

77 

80 

80 

80 

80 

81 

148 

148 

158 

156 

158 

157 

155 

157 



268 
116 
276 
159 
191 
199 
117 
210 
216 
215 
215 
214 
21 S 



PAGE 

Elm, Mountain 215 

Elm, Red 213 

Elm, Rock 214 

Elm, Scotch 216 

Elm, Slippery .... 213 

Elm, Small-leaved . . . . 215 

Elm, White 210 

Elm, Winged 215 

Elm, Wych 216 

Elms, The 210-216 

"Encina" 64 

Engelmann spruce . . . .250 

English elm 215 

English hawthorn .... 155 

English walnut 33 

Euonymus atropurpureus . . 136 

European ash 208 

European cypress .... 272 

European dogwood . . . 113 

European holly 144 

European mountain ash . . 117 

European nettle tree . . 162 
Evergreens, Cone-bearing . 217-279 

Evergreens, Leaves of . . . 20 

Fagus Americanus .... 42 

Fibres of wood 13 

Ficus aurea 167 

Ficus elasticus 166 

"Fiddleback" ash .... 209 

Figs, The 165-167 

Fir, Balsam 253 

Fir, Blue 257 

Fir, Noble 256 

Fir, Red 254 

Fir, Red (.4. nobilis) . . . 256 

Fir, Silver 257 

Fir, White 256 

Fir, White (A concolor) . . 257 

Firs, The 251-257 

Flowering dogwood . . . Ill 

"Foxtail" pines, The . . . 221) 

Fraxinus Americana .... 202 

F rax urn s excelsior .... 208 

Fraxinus nigra 204 

Fraxinus Oregona .... 207 

Fraxinus ornus 209 

Fraxinus Pennsylvaniea . . 205 
Fraxinus Pcnnsi/lranica (lanceo- 

^ lata) . i06 

FraxinuB quadrangutaia . . 20(J 



286 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Frijolito 192 

Fringe tree 126 

Gerarde 73 

Gleditsia triacanthos .... 180 

Golden fig 167 

Grain of wood ..... 13 

Gray pine 238 

Great laurel 119 

Great laurel magnolia . . . 104 

Green ash 206 

"GreteHerball" 73 

Gum, Cotton 97 

Gum, Sour or Black .... 96 

Gum, Sweet 97 

Gum trees, The .... 95-100 

Gymnocladus dioicus . . . . 181 
Gymnosperms .... 217-279 

Hackbemes, The ... 160-162 
Hamamelis Virgiuiana . . .134 

"Hard- tack" 86 

Haw, Black 115, 158 

Haw, Red ...... 157 

Haw, Scarlet 157-158 

Hawthorns, The 155-159 

Hazel, Witch 133 

Heath family 118 

Hemlocks, The .... 259-262 

Hicoria alba 40 

Hicoria glabra 41 

Hicoria lacinata .... 38 

Hicoria ovata ...... 37 

Hicoria Pecan 38 

Hickories, The 36-41 

Hickory elm 214 

Hollies, The 143-146 

Holly, American 145 

Holly, European 144 

Honey locust 179 

Honey pod 188 

Hop hornbeam 86 

Hornbeam, American ... 85 

Hornbeam, Hop 86 

Horse bean 191 

Horse-chestnut foliage ... 17 
Horse-chestnuts, The . . .65-68 
"Horse sugar" 125 

Icthyometkia Piscipula . . . 190 
Ilex aquifolium ..... 144 



PAGE 

Ilex Opaca 145 

Ilex vomitoria ..... 145 

Incense cedar 270 

"Iron oak" ...... 52 

"Iron wood," see also Hornbeam 

Ironwood, Knowlton's ... 87 

Jack pine 238 

Jamaica dogwood ■ . . . . 190 

Japanese persimmon . . . 175 

Japanese walnut , 33 

"Judas-tree" 183 

Juglans, Californica .... 29 

Juglans cinerea ..... 30 

Juglans cordiformis ... 33 

Juglans nigra 31 

Juglans regia 33 

Juglans rupestris 29 

Juglans Sieboldiana .... 33 

June-berry 159 

Junipers, The .... 274-277 

Juniperus Barbadensis . . . 277 

Juniperus communis . . . 275 

Juniperus occidentalis . . . 276 

Juniperus Virginiana . . . 276 

Kaki • 175 

Kalm, Peter xx 

Kalmia latifolia 120 

Kentucky coffee tree . . . 181 

Knob-cone pine .... 240 

Knowlton's ironwood ... 87 

Lance-leaved Cottonwood . . 80 

" Langues de fernmes" ... 81 
Larches, The .... 277-279 

Large-leaved cucumber tree . 106 

Larix Americana 278 

Larix occidentalis .... 279 
Laurel family .... 127-133 

Laurel, Great 119 

Laurel, Mountain .... 120 

Laurel oak 63 

Laurus nobilis 129 

Lawson cypress 273 

Leaves 4,16-20 

"Lever- wood" 86 

Librocedus Decurrens . . . 270 

Lime, Common 72 

"Lime Trees," see Lindens 

Linden, American .... 70 



GENERAL INDEX 



287 



PAGE 

Lindens, The 68-74 

Linnaeus xviii, 73 



Liquidambcr styraciflua 
Liriodendron tulipifera 
Live oak .... 
Live oak (Q. agrifolia) 
Lobloll pine . 
Locusts, The . 
Lodge-pole pine . 
Lombardy poplar 
Longleaf pine 



s eye 



Madrona . . 
Magnolia acuminata 
Magnolia, Campbell's 
Magnolia foetida 
Magnolia Glauca 
Magnolia, Great laurel 
Magnolia marrophylla 
Magnolia, Starry 
Magnolia stellata 
Magnolia tripetala 
Magnolia yulan . 
Magnolias, The . 
Mains coronaria . 
Malus ioensis 
Maple, "Bird'; 

"Curly" 
Maple, Black . 
Maple, Dwarf 
Maple, Mountain 
Maple, Norway 
Maple, Oregon 
Maple, Red . 
Maple, Silver 
Maple, Soft . 
Maple, Striped 
Maple, Sugar 
Maple, Sycamore 
Maple, Vine 
Maple, Wier's weepin. 
Maples, The . . , 
Melon papaAV 
Mesquite ... 
Mexican cotton wood 
Mississippi Valley die: 
Mockernut 
Mohrodendron dlptera 
Mohrodendron tetraplcra 
Monterey cypress 
Monterey pine 



and 



tnut 



. 97 
. 109 

56 
. 64 

. 236 

177-184 
. 245 
. 77 
. 232 



. 121 

. 107 

. 103 

. 104 

. 105 

. 104 

. 106 

. 103 

. 103 

. 108 

. 102 
101-111 

. 148 

. 148 



15 
. 195 
. 199 
. 198 
. 200 
. 197 
. 195 
. 196 
. 196 
. 198 
. 194 
. 200 
. 197 
. 196 
193-201 
. 109 
. 188 
80 
54 
40 
124 
123 
271 
241 



oak 



PAGE 

Moose ehn 213 

Morus alba 164 

Morns nigra 165 

Morus rubra 163 

Mountain ashes .... 116-118 

Mountain elm 215 

Mountain hemlock .... 261 

Mountain laurel 120 

Mountain maple 198 

Mountain pine ..... 224 

Mountain sumach .... 140 

Muir, John xvi 

Mulberries, The .... 163-165 

Names of trees . . . xvii-xxiii 
Nannyberry, Rusty .... 115 
Narrow-leaved cottonwood . . 80 
"Necklace-bearing" poplar . 78 
Nettle tree, European . . . 162 

Noble fir 256 

Nomenclature of trees . xvii-xxiii 

Norway maple 200 

Norway pine 246 

Norway spruce 248 

Nut pines 230-232 

Nut trees, The 28-74 

Nyssa aquatica 97 

Nyssa sylvatica 96 

Oak, Basket 55 

Oak, Black 58 

Oak, Bur 51 

Oak, California white ... 57 

Oak, Chestnut 53 

Oak, "Iron" 52 

Oak, Live 56 

Oak, Live (Q. agrifolia) ... 64 

Oak, Mississippi Valley chestnut 54 

Oak, Pacific post .... 57 

Oak, Pin 60 

Oak, Post 52 

Oak, Red 61 

Oak, "Rock chestnut" ... 53 

Oak, Scarlet 59 

Oak, Single or Laurel ... OS 
Oak, Swamp white .... 

Oak, White 49 

Oak, Willow (]£ 

Oak, "Yellow" -, t 

Oaks. Black 58-60 

Oaks, The 40-H55 



288 



GENERAL INDEX 



Oaks, White . . 
Ohio buckeye 
Oilnut .... 
Old field pine 
One-leaved nut pine 
Oregon alder . 
Oregon ash 
Oregon maple 
Oriental plane 
Osage orange 
Ostrya Knowletoni 
Ostrya Virginiana 
Oxydendrum arboreum 

Pacific post oak 
Palms, The . 
Palo verde acacia 
Papaws, The . 
Paper birch . 
Parkinsonia aculeaia 
Pecan . 
"Pepperidge" 
Persea Borbonia 
Persea gratissitna 
Persimmons, The 
Picea Engelmanni 
Picea excelsa . 
Picea Mariana 
Picea Parryana 
Picea rubens 
Picea Sitchensis 
Pie cherry- 
Pignut 
Pin cherry. 
Pin oak . . 
Pine, "Big-cone" 
Pine, Cuban . 
Pine, Digger . 
Pine, Gray 
Pine, Jack 
Pine, Knob-cone 
Pine, Loblolly 
Pine, Lodge-pole 
Pine, Longleaf 
Pine, Monterey 
Pine, Mountain 
Pine, Norway 
Pine, Old field 
Pine, One-leaved nut 
Pine, Pitch . . 
Pine, Prickle-cone 



PAGE PAGE 

49-58 Pine, Red 246 

67 "Pine, Red" 258 

30 Pine, Rocky Mountain white . 228 

236 Pine, Rosemary 237 

231 Pine, Scrub 244 

93 Pine, Shortleaf 235 

207 Pine, Slash 236 

197 Pine, "Southern" .... 233 

95 Pine, Sugar 225 

99 Pine, Swamp 236 

87 Pine, Tamarack 245 

86 Pine, Western pitch .... 239 

122 Pine, Western yellow ... 242 

Pine, White 222 

57 Pine, White bark 228 

280 Pines, "Foxtail" .... 229 

190 Pines, Nut 230-232 

167-170 Pines, The 220-247 

88 Piflon 230 

191 Pinus albicaulis 228 

38 Pinus aristata 229 

96 Pinus attenuata 240 

129 Pinus Balfouriana .... 229 

129 Pinus Caribaea * .... 236 

172-175 Pinus cembroides 230 

250 Pinus contorta 244 

248 Pinus Coulteri 239 

248 Pinus divaricata 238 

250 Pinus echinata 235 

249 Pinus edulis 230 

251 Pinus flexilis t 228 

152 Pinus Lambertiana .... 225 
41 Pinus monophylla .... 231 

153 Pinus Monticola 224 

60 Pinus palustris 232 

240 Pinus jponderosa 242 

236 Pinus quadrifolia 230 

239 Pinus radiata 241 

238 Pinus resinosa 246 

238 Pinus rigida 237 

240 Pinus Sabiniana 239 

236 Pinus Strobus 222 

245 Pinus Taeda 236 

232 Pitch pine 237 

241 Pitch pine, Western ... 239 
224 Pitch pines, The .... 232 

246 Plane, Oriental 95 

236 Platanus occidentalis ... 93 
231 Platanus orientalis .... 95 

237 Plums, The 149-152 

229 "Pod-bearers," The . . . 176-192 



GENERAL INDEX 









PAGE 


Poison sumach 141 


Pond apples, The 




170-172 


Poplar, Balsam . 




79 


Poplar, Black 






77 


Poplar, Carolina 






78 


Poplar, Lombardy 




_ 


77 


Poplar, " Necklace-bearing 




78 


Poplar, Silver-leaved 




76 


Poplar, White .... 




76 


Poplars, The . . 






75-81 


Populus acuminata 






80 


Populus alba . 






76 


Populus angustifolia 






80 


Populus balsamifera 






79 


Populus deltoidea 






77 


Populus heterophylla 






81 


Populus Mexicana 






80 


Populus nigra 






77 


Populus tremuloides 






78 


Populus trichocarpa 






80 


Post oak . . . 






52 


Prairie crab . 






148 


Prickle-cone pine 






229 


Prickwood 






137 


Prosopis pubescens 






189 


Prosopis Tuliflora 






188 


Prunus Americanus 






150 


Prunus avium 






152 


Prunus cerasus 






152 


Prunus nigra * . 






151 


Prunus Pennsylvanica 




153 


Prunus pseudo-Cerasus . 




152 


Prunus serotina . 




153 


Prunus Virginiana . 




154 


Pseudotsuga mucronata 




258 


Pussy willow .... 




84 


Quaking asp .... 




78 


Quercus acuminata 




54 


Quercus agrifolia . 




64 


Quercus alba 




49 


Quercus chrysolepis . 




. 63 


Quercus coccinea . 
Quercus Garryana 




. 59 




. 57 


Quercus lobata .... 




57 


Quercus macrocarpa . 




51 


Quercus Michauxii . 




. 55 


Quercus minor 




5i 


Quercus palustris . 




. 60 


Quercus Phellos . 




t>2 


Quercus platanoides 






54 



PAGE 

Quercus prinus 53 

Quercus rubra 61 

Quercus velutina . . .58 

Quercus Virginiana ... 56 



Ram's horn ash .... 209 

Red alder 93 

Red ash 205 

Red bay 129 

Red birch 90 

Red cedar 269 

Red cedar, Eastern .... 276 

Red elm 213 

Red fir 254 

Red fir (4. nobilis) .... 256 

Rew haw 157 

Red juniper 277 

Red maple 195 

Red mulberry 163 

Red oak 61 

Red pine 246 

"Red pine" 258 

Red plum, Wild 150 

Red spruce 249 

Redbud 182 

Redwood 266 

Retama 191 

Rhododendron 118 

Rhododendron maximum . . 119 

Rhus copallina 140 

Rhus glabra 141 

Rhus hirta 13S 

Rhus Vernix 141 

Rings, The Annual .... 12 

River birch 90 

Robinia Pseudacacia . . . . 178 

Robinia viscosa 179 

"Rock chestnut" oak ... 53 

Rock elm 214 

Rocky Mountain white pine . 228 

Rose bay 119 

Rosemary pine 237 

Rowan tree 117 

Royal palm 280 

Rubber plant 166 

Rum cherry 153 

Rusty nanny berry . . . . 115 

Salix Babylonica ss 

Salix discolor Si 



£90 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Sap 6 

Sargent, Professor .... xxi 

Sassafras 130 

Scarlet haw 157 

Scarlet oak 59 

Scientific names xvii 

Scotch elm 216 

Screw-bean 189 

Screw-pod 189 

Scrub pine 244 

Seaside alder 92 

Sequoia sempervirens . . . 266 

Sequoia Wellingtonia . . . 263 
Sequoias, The . . . 262-288 
Service-berries, The . . . 159-160 

Shad-bush ...... 159 

Shagbark 37 

Shaw botanical garden . . . xiv 

Sheepberry 114 

SheUbark 37 

Shellbark, Big 38 

Shingle oak 63 

Shortleaf pine 235 

" Silva of North America " , . xxi 

Silver bell trees 123 

Silver fir 257 

Silver-leaved poplar .... 76 

Silver maple 196 

Silver wattle 187 

Slash pine 236 

Slippery elm 213 

Small-leaved elm .... 215 

Smoke tree 142 

Smooth sumach 141 

Snowdrop tree 124 

"Snowdrop tree" .... 123 

Soft maple 196 

Soft pines 222-229 

Sophora secundiftora .... 192 
Sorbus Americana . . . .116 
Sorbus Aucwparia . . . .117 

Sorbus sambucifolia . . . . 117 

Sorrel tree 122 

Sour gum 96 

Sour-wood 122 

"Southern" pine .... 233 

Southwestern walnut ... 29 

"Species plantarwn" . . . xix 

Spruce, Black 248 

Spruce, Blue 250 

Spruce, Douglas 258 



Spruce, Engelmann 
Spruce, Norway . 
Spruce, Red . 
Spruce, Tideland 
Spruces, The . 
Staghorn sumach 
Starch .... 
Starry magnolia . 
Striped maple . 
Sugar maple . 
Sugar pine 

Sumach, Black dwarf 
Sumach, Dwarf . 
Sumach, Mountain 
Sumach, Poison . 
Sumach, Smooth 
Sumach, Staghorn 
Sumachs, The 
Swamp bay . 
Swamp Cottonwood 
Swamp pine . 
Swamp white oak 
Sweet buckeye 
Sweet cherry . 
Sweet gum 
Sweet leaf 
Sycamore maple . 
Sycamores, The . 
Symplocos tinctoria 

Tamarack pine . 
Tamaracks, The . 
"Tassel trees" 
Taxodium distichum 
Texas ebony . 
Thuya occidentalis 
Thuya plicata 
Tideland spruce . 
Tilia Americana . 
Tilia heterophylla 
Tilia pubescens 
Tilia vulgaris . 
Toxylon pomiferum 
Transpiration 
Trees, Bark of 
Trees, Breathing of 
Trees, Buds of 
Trees, Chemistry of 
Trees, Food of 
Trees, Growth of 
Trees, How to know 



PAGE 

. 250 
. 248 
. 249 
. 251 

247-251 
. 138 
7 
. 103 
. 198 
. 194 
. 225 
. 140 
. 140 
. 140 
. 141 
. 141 
. 138 

137-142 
. 105 
. 81 
. 236 
54 
. 67 
. 152 
. 97 
. 124 
. 200 
.93-95 
. 125 

245 

277-279 

. 186 

. 273 

. 191 



the 



269 
251 
70 
71 
72 
72 
99 
23 
23 
. 22 
. 3,23 
. 5-8 
6 
. 9-16 
xiv-xvi 



XV, 



GENERAL INDEX 



291 



Trees in winter , 
Trees, Leaves of . 
Trees, Life of . 
Trees, Names of 
Trees, Opposite-leaved 
Trees, Sap of . 
Trembling aspen . 
Tsuga Canadensis 
Tsuga heterophylla 
Tsuga Mariensiana . 
Tulip tree 
"Tupelo" .... 



xu, 



Ulmus alata . 
Ulmus Americana 
Ulmus campestris 
Ulmus fulva . 
Ulmus montana . 
Ulmus Thomasi . 
Umbrella tree 



Viburnum lentago. 
Viburnum prunifolium 
Viburnum rufidulum 
Viburnums, The . 
Vine maple 
"Virgilia" . . . 



Wahoo .... 
"Wahoo" 

Walnut, Black . . 
Walnut, California . 
Walnut, English , . 
Walnut, Japanese 
Walnut, Southwestern 
Walnut, White . . 
Walnuts, The . . 
"Water beech" . 
Wattles, The . . . 
Weeping maple, Wier's 
Weeping willow 
Western dogwood 
Western hemlock 
Western juniper . 
Western larch. 



PAGE PAGE 

20-27 Western pitch pine .... 239 

16-20 Western service-berry . . . 160 

3-27 Western yellow pine . . . 242 

xvri-xxiii White ash 202 

xv Vv T hite-bark pine .... 228 

6 White basswood 71 

78 White birch 89 

260 White cedar 272 

261 White elm 210 

261 White fir 256 

109 White fir {A. concolor) ... 257 

96 White mulberry 164 

White oak 49 

215 White oak group . . . .49-58 

210 White pine 222 

215 White pine, Rocky Mountain . 228 

213 White poplar 76 

216 White walnut 30 

214 Wier's weeping maple . . . 196 
108 "Wild banana tree" ... 169 

Wild black cherry .... 153 

114 Wild cherry 153 

115 Wild crab 148 

115 Wild red plum 150 

114 Willow oak 62 

197 Willow, Pussy 84 

183 Willow, Weeping .... 83 

Willows, The 81-84 

137 Winged elm 215 

215 Winter, Trees in • 20-27 

31 "Winter berries" 143 

29 Witch hazel 133 

33 Wood 12-16 

33 Wychelm 216 

29 

30 Yaupon 145 

,28-35 Yellow birch 89 

85 Yellow locust 178 

184-1 S7 "Yellow oak" 54 

196 Yellow pine, Western ... 242 

83 Yellow plum 150 

113 Yellow- wood 183 

261 Yulan magnolia 102 

276 

279 Zigiajlexicaulis 191 




THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS 
GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 



JUL ±19 11 



